Maximum Ride: Forgetting Her Memory
by simranm
Summary: Once again I was up to saving the world. execpt something big happened. something that even blew me away. something that nobody ever excpected, even with our crazy life. and it determined if i could save the world or not...
1. Prolouge: Part 1 Chapter 1 technically

**Heeeey! i thought of this and needed to make a fanfict about right away! i love the idea. Well its in Max POV just like the books. Yeah well here you go. PM and comment even favorite it or follow it :) its gonna be long. Epic. Yeah so here it is =) PS. I dont own Maximum Ride. James Patterson does.

* * *

**

I hovered in the air above the M-Geeks swinging the steel pole all around getting them in the head. My nose killed. Thats what happens when you get clocked in the face-- in the nose-- three times by three different M-Geeks. I hated it. Well we sort of were winning. I mean Fang and Iggy were fine, maybe with a few bad spots here and there. Nudge was dominating. It's actually really funny the way she's fighting. The Gassman was holding his own, with a little help from Angel. Angel and Total were kind of scary. Who knew there could be so much rage and power in a six--sorry seven-- year old bird kid and bird dog. Weird. Bird _DOG._

I looked around in the large storage center where Mr. Chu and his M-Geeks hid away. I flew around helping here and there but mainly looking for him so we could stop him. You know the usual save the world thing. I landed with a hard _thud _on a M-Geek making him crash into another. Nicley their orange guts and insides went flying on me. "Fang!" I shouted his name. He quickly looked up and caught the steel pole I tossed him, smashing a few more in the face. A M-Geek raced at me and I round house kicked him in the chest, sending him flying back. He growled and swung his fists at my face. His fist crashed into the side of my head and I staggered backwards. I jumped and kicked him in the neck, and then kicking in the head. Well that pretty much finished him and I got anothe guts bath. Great. I looked around and spotted Mr. Chu scurrying out the door with a few M-Geeks gaurding him. I looked at Fang and he nodded. We ran towards Mr. Chu attacking the M-Geeks in front of us. Fang and I went flying backwards and crashing into the wall.

"MAX!" Angel called my name and the rest of the Flock attacked the M-Geeks. That's my little troopers. Quickly I got up and tried again.  
"Max." Fang said my name and I turned to him, "Get Mr. Chu. We'll get these gush heads." I gave him a quick nod and raced forward, snapping my wings out and flying to Mr. Chu.

I landed in front of him, making him sqeal like a little girl. I laughed and gave him a menacing look. Like lightning I moved behind him and grabbed his arms, pulling them behind him and up. "What's wrong Chuey?" I hissed in his ear, "Afraid of a little pain?" He squirmed and twitched. He shouted something in Chinese, Korean, whatever and smiled up at me devilishly. There was a loud, high pitched sound and I felt something sharp in my arm. I gasped and let go of Mr. Chu, feeling my arm going numb. On my arm was a syringe with green goop going in my arm.

"Haha. I've got you Maximum Ride." he laughed. I fell to my knees, holding my arm. My eye lids dropped and I shook. I fell on my back when I was too weak to move. What was happening? What the heck is wrong?

"MAX!" Nudges voice rung in my ear like she was a million miles away. I moved my head to see the Flock trying to get to me but the M-Geeks blocking their way.  
"Nudge?" I asked slowly. My eyes opened and closed, my vision blurring. I felt large hands picking me up and I tried to move but couldn't. I felt so vurlnerable. And you know how good I feel about being vulnerable. Hate it as much as dog crates, labs, hospitals, and needles.

"MAX!" Angels little voice called. I could feel myself being carried away. The Flock further away from me. Then it all went back.

* * *

Mr. Chu walked over to the woman in the white lag coat waiting at the end of the hallway in the large abandoned hospital building. "So how are things going with Maximum Ride?" he asked. The woman looked down at the clipboard in her hand.

"Maximum Ride's memory is erased. We're just doing some tests and give her a new identity. What--who should be her parents?" the woman asked. Mr. Chu thought for a second. This plan was going just as planned. Better than what they had planned.

"Make two scientists her parents. Watch her. Give her memories totally different than what she should know," he chuckled, " And keep an eye on the other avian expiraments. We don't want her to see them and all things come flashing back to her. This needs to be perfect."

Another scientist came walking over. "Well we've gotten all things secure," he paused, "We cant do anything about the wings. We'll have to make some story up. Play Itex in some part. She is now know as Carter Carson." he said. Mr. Chu nodded in approval and looked at the scientists. He pointed to them.

"You can be her parents. You have some features that could be hers. Keep an eye. Be nice and like loving parents." he ordered. The scientists nodded and walked down the hall. Mr. Chu chuckled to himself. This was going to be great. Maximum Ride was out of the picture and now they could do whatever they wanted. A few minutes later a girl walked down the hallway. She was patched up and looked around confused.

"Hi Uncle Chu," she smiled, "Um. Where's Mom?" she asked pushing her hair back.

Mr. Chu smiled, "She is coming." he told Max.

"Kay." she said shrugging and walking around. "Well see ya." she said and walked back down the hall.

Perfect. Chu thought.

* * *

**SO? what did u think? this was suppose to be a small chapter. The real deal is coming. The more response to these the faster the chapters will come. Thanx**


	2. Chapter 2

**

* * *

**

WOOOW! LOTS OF RESPONSE. AND THANKS FOR THAT. So this is the next chapter. Yeah I had the next chapter up but then my computer screwed up and erased the chapter and it didnt go on the story. yeah i know. just my luck. well enjoy. Oh and it is offical (see book: MAX) that Maximum Ride has brown hair and brown eyes. She was talking with Angel about it in some chapter i dont remember. so yeah she is NOT BLONDE!!! but she does have lots of blonde sun streak high lights.

* * *

( With the Flock)

"I can't believe they took her!" The Gassman shouted in frustration, trying his best to hold back his tears. Max always told him, if anything happened to her then he would be leader. The Gassman knew she was saying that to make him feel good and it worked. He didn't care if he was leader or not.

They were at yet another safe house the CSM had for them, and Dr. Martinez and Brigid Dwyer were with some FBI agents looking for Max. She had vanished off of the radar. A person who could look different, act different, and worse, she could be yet another person trying to kill them.

"What are we gonna do?" Nudge asked flopping forward on her stomach,on the floor of the living room, directing her question to Fang. For now he was in charge. Total cursed and plopped down in front of Nudge.  
"This sucks monkey butt." Total huffed. The rest of the flock agreed.  
"What if the FBI agents don't find her? I mean what if Max is gone forever?" Iggy asked fidling with his plain white t-shirt. Nudge chucked a stay cushion, thwaping Iggy upside the head. "Hey! What was that for?!" he rubbed the side of his where his earing caught with a loose seam. Nudge rolled her eyes the Max did so many times to Fang and Iggy.  
"Stop being negative about things. Oh and I'm rolling my eyes Iggy." she mummbled. Angel walked into the room with Ella by her side. Since Max was missing, Ella came to help because one this was her sister and two, she had summer vacation.

Angel looked at her feet, "Um guys?" she whispered. Everyone turned to her and waited for her to say something.  
"Go on Angel. Its okay." Ella whispered down to her. Over the time Max and the flock had been at Dr. Martinez's house. Ella became close. An almost flock memeber sort of. Angel gulped loudly and stood up straight._ Time to be brave, just like Max says. _She told herself. "I think I know where Max is.." she trailed off. Everyones eyes bugged and looked at her in shock.  
"Really?" Total asked his ears high up on alert. Angel nodded.  
"I was sleeping," she said shakily, "And I had a dream, not a regular dream. I mean it was like a vision. Like I was watching Max. Feeling the way Max felt." she stopped waiting for someone to say something.

Fang thought deeply. Angel could have a vision. Now that was freaky. He chuckled to himself. Max would freak if she found out. "Are you sure?" he finally asked. Angel nodded her golden pig tails bouncing wildly. "Hmmm." he thought. 1. This could be a trap 2. This could find her 3. or something else.

The Gassman and Nudge raced over to Angel, "Where?" Nudge asked quickly.  
"Somewhere in California. I think Laguna Beach. I saw the adress of the house too. I mean you wont believe this," Angel chuckles, "Her name is Carter Carson. She is supposed to be head cheerleader for some school I forgot, she wants to be a model/actress/singer by age 25. She loves her pink frill denim mini skirt and blue tank top that is from Hollister-or Shomllister. Something like that."

Everyone abrupted in laughter. "Max? Pink? head cheerleader---" Iggy couldn't even finish his sentance before laughing again. The Gassman held his stomach.  
"If Max saw that she was like that without her memory her head would explode. Ahahah!" Nudge laughed.  
"Atleast this girl will know fashion for a little while right?" Total barked a laugh. Fang tried calming himself, holding onto his side and laughing.  
"I would pay a million bucks to see Max wear that and the look on her face! Besides we know where she is!!" said Iggy and punched the air. After a while everyone calmed down. They know Max is okay, and they know where she is, who she is. Fang listed it inside his head.

"Okay," Fang said in all seriousness, "I guess we're headed for Laguna Beach." he said and Nudge whooped and cheered.  
"This is going to be tricky though." Iggy said getting up and heading for the door, "I mean she is with Mr. Chu's whatevers and M-Geeks right?" he asked Angel and she nodded.  
"Yup. Security. And she still has her wings--thank God or whoever is in charge-- but because of that her parents told her that, thats why they have all the security." she shook her head.

"I'll call Mom and tell her you guys are going to Laguna Beach." Ella said getting up.  
"No. You can't tell Dr. Martinez, Ella. She won't let us go. We'll be back." said Fang and he got up looking out the window. "It would probably take a 2 maybe even 3 hour flight to Laguna Beach from now."

Nudge jumped up onto her feet, "I'll get my purse---" she paused when Fang shook his head. "What?!" she asked placing her hands on her hips.  
"You know you cant take your purse without getting tired of holding it Nudge," he made a point, "Use your pockets and get some money."  
Nudge sighed and hunched her shoulders, walking to her room in the safe house. Fang turned to everyone else.  
"Okay we are leaving in ten. Meet my outside." he said and walked out of the living room.  
"Well lets go!" The Gassman grabbed Iggy by the arm they race out of the living too, Total and Angel following with Ella behind.

* * *

(Max POV)

"Hey Mom." I said walking into the kitchen where Mom was making me a snack.  
"Oh hey hun." she laughed while chopping onions, "What's up?" Clearly she knew what I wanted. Sitting down at the island I looked at my relfection in the sause pan next to me.  
"Hey Mom do you have any pink lipstick oh and those new Tom strap boots do you?. I need one to match my eye shadow and a pair to match my new top." I pucked my lips and laughed. "Besides all the other girls in the squad want us to wear pink coral laguna. Not strawberry pink." I looked at her pleading and batting my lashes. I tossed a brown wave over my shoulder and fixed my jeans and pulling on my sneakers.

She thought for a second putting a strawberry in her mouth. "Fine Carter," she mumbled through chewing, " Today we'll go at five o'clock. Okay?" she asked. I made a face.  
"Come on Mom. Thats like in four hours." she gave me the no-more-discussion- young-lady look. "Fine. Fine."  
"Good." Mom nodded her head and went back to chopping. I rolled my eyes, flexing my wings that were showing thanks to my tank top. Yeah I know. I have wings. Its so cool. But no other people know because I could get killed. There are other bird kids. A flock that does for a thing called the CSM. Its so cool.I don't know how they look though cause all the poster of them were taken down for some reason. But one of them has gone missing acording to my parents.

* * *

(With the flock)

"How much longer?" Angel asked Nudge as she flew a few feet above her, their wings brushing each other. Nudge looked down.  
"We should be there any second. Ohh!" she sqealled. " I wanna live in Laguna Beach!"  
"Me too!" Angel squealled and they both sqealled together. Iggy costed over, flying fifty feet under them.  
"Jeez. Can you girls stop sqealling so much?" Iggy put his hands over both of his ears.  
"No."Angel laughed sticking her tounge out at him. "Face it Iggy. If Max is the way she is now then well you're gonna have to live with it," she paused making her voice creepy and scary, "_Forever!_" Nudge and Angel burst out laughing at the look on Iggy's pale face. Fang flew in a large circle around the flock.

"Laguna Beach down bellow!" he shouted to them.  
"Finally!" Nudge breathed as they all flew towards the ground.

"Lets hope we find Max here." Angel said to Total and he nodded, his little black wings flapping fast to keep up with her.

"I hope she doesn't keep the girly girlness. We need a Max." Total gruffed,"We need a Maximum 'Charging Off ' Ride." Angel giggled and angled sideways to catch up with Nudge.

* * *

(Max POV)

I followed Mom down the long alley from the parking lot. Our body gaurds were around, not trailing us, but looking after us from a far away non-stalkery way. We walked down the strip of stores. "So Mr. Chu and some of the others will be coming for dinner tonight." Mom rambled on. I nodded not really caring, looking around at the thousands of Peigons flying away. My wings itched under my jacket and I craved to just snap them out and fly free too. "Carter are you listening to me?" I snapped out of my trance and looked up at her blankly. She giggled. I sort of have this thing that I go in my own little world for a sec. Hmm. I know, people _love _it.  
"No." I said with an innocent smile.  
"Well I was saying that we'll need to stop at the food market on the board walk for some fresh veggies."  
"Okay," I mumbled," Wow these allies are so long." I commented. Light barley pooled down into the alley and I was on high alert. Someone was following us. In the disntance I could hear 6 pairs of wings flapping loudly. I could hear people grunting and grumbling. "Mom..."

Six men came out of the shadows holding metal poles, with sly grins on their faces. "Oh little rich girls walking alone in the alley." the largest one in the front said. My hands curled into fists and I stepped back.  
"Oh little dumb thugs walking in the alley." I snarled at him. The others chuckled. From behind more men walked out of the shadows. They grabbed me and my mom from behind, holding us by our arms. I struggled and kicked trying to break free. I cursed some not so colorful words at the man who was holding me. I don't know why I said this. I don't even who it was. But I looked up at the sky, bellowing at the top of my lungs, "FANG! HELP ME!"

* * *

(With the flock)

Fang, the Gassman, and Angel had taken the north and east end of Laguna, and Iggy, Nudge and Total had taken the south and the west end. They met up in a parking lot alley near some of the big company buildings. "No sign of Max." Nudge mumbled sadly. Iggy and Total both nodded. Fang sighed and shook his head.  
"Where the heck could one bird kid be?!" the Gassman exclaimed throwing his skinny arms up in the air. Fang was about to say something when the flock heard words that were hope to them.

"FANG HELP ME!" Max's voice rang in their ears. Nudge gasped and looked around frantically. Fang's face didn't change but Fang's heart skipped a beat.  
"Max!" she shrieked and snapped out her wings. Angel patted her arm and Nudge relaxed knowing Angel could find her, thanks to Angel's mind reading powers. Angel closed her eyes, rubbing her temples hard. She searched and could hear everyone in the flock's thoughts.

_OH GOD! I'M GONNA DIE! I'M GONNA DIE! WHY DID I SAY FANG? DIE!DIE! DIE!_ Those were Max's thoughts. Angel's eyes shot open. "Max is in the alley down the street!" she gasped. Without any other word the flock snapped their wings out, one by one running and taking off into the air. They scanned the ground for Max.

"There!" Total barked, pointing a furry black pow down at an alley where ten goons had Max and her "Mom". Fang swooped down, pushing his legs in front of him, crashing into one of the thugs head.

* * *

(Max POV)

My eyes bulged as much as they could when a boy my age with black wings came crashing feet first into a thug. My first thought was way to go dude! My second was what the hell? Before anyone could move four more winged kids and a flying dog swooped in also. They all looked familiar, like I knew them. A tall boy with pale blonde hair punched the lights out of the thug that had me and went for the rest. All of them were kicking the thugs butts, even the littlest one! "Carter!" my mother shouted my name and I looked to see her running down the alley with one of the body gaurds running to me. I began to move to them when the littlest one blocked my way. I looked down at her, and craning my neck to find my mom.  
"You can't go Max--Carter." she said to me sweetly. Are you crazy? "No I'm not crazy." she shook her head giggling, answering my _thought question_, a blonde curl covering her angelic face.

"Carter!" Mom shouted again. I tried moving the little girl away but she stepped in front of me insted.  
"Move Angel!" I shouted. I froze and she froze too, looking at me surprised.  
"How?" she choked.  
"I--I d-don't know. Is that you're--" but before I could ask my question the answer came and hit me in the face. Her name was Angel. But I don't know an Angel? Yeah my dog Angel. But not her! First Fang and now Angel? Where are those names coming from?  
"You're remembering Max." she whispered.  
"Umm." I could'nt even choke out words. Suddenly Angel jumped up and flew into the air and I felt a wheight crash down onto my head. I spun around trying to catch my balance. "Aieeeee!!!" I screamed and fell to the ground to see Angel holding a metal pole above me.

Everything became fuzzy and I couldnt thing right. And then it went black.

* * *

**hey its done! now chapter 3. i made max sound un-maxlike. if you get what i'm saying. not like max. infact the total opposite of max. if i can get 10 comments them chapter 3 will come sooner. thanx :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Ahhh what the heck. this chapter can come earlier lol. so this mostly the kick off point in the story. thanx for all the reviews and favoriting and all those PMs. cool! so i know in the last story that it had a lot of the flocks POV but that was b/c Max wasn't there. so i should mostly be Max and the flock , but there might be some like Mr. Chu and Fang, you know other people besides Max. yeah i know in the 1st two chapters Max has gotten knocked out and it was in my opinion funny when Angel hit Max and made her go unconcious. lol :) oh and plz lay off on the small grammer and spelling mistakes i make people. i dont really edit these things. i mosty type on fanfiction. not on Word. **

(With the flock)

"Angel!" Nudge screamed. "Why'd you knock out Max!?" Angel looked down at Max. The body gaurds where all knocked out too and the flock stood around Max.  
Fang shook his head walking over. "Who's gonna carry her?" he asked. Everyone's eyes( minus Iggy's but who turned and faced his perfectly) turned to Fang. He sighed, bending down and picking Max up in his arms. He looked down at her peaceful face.  
"Yes! We found her!" The Gassman cheered, hugging himself and jumping up and down.

The flock had flown for six hours to one of the western states near southern California. They had stopped on a mountain where they were going to rest.

"When's Max gonna wake up _Angel?_" Nudge asked sitting on the cliff edge with her feet dangling down. Angel shrugged.  
"WheneverNudge." she said mashing the words all together. Max stirred.  
"Guys she's waking up!" Total said and everyone walked over looking down at the flock leader.  
"I hope the wack on the head gave her back her memory." Iggy mumbled.

* * *

(Max POV)

Ouch. Headache. I stirred on the hard ground a rock poking my back. Slowly I opened my eyes a bit to see the other bird kids and the bird dog(haha) from before looking down at me. This time I opened my eyes fully.  
"Max you okay?" the African American one said. Nudge. That word kept on repeating inside of my head, throbbing with headache.  
"Max?" I mumbled getting up, the others made room and I brushed off my new jeans. "Who's Max?" I asked confused. The spikey haired little boy groaned.

Gassman.

Where the _hell_ are these names coming from? I don't know these people. Or I atleast I don't think I do.  
"She still doesn't remember." Iggy said. Iggy. I knew his name just like that. Wow this was freaky. Or did that Itex place do something to make the avians know each other's names? Can you answer my question, oh devoted reader? Cause I need answers. Now.

"Thanks Captain the Obvious." the dog muttered. I forze looking down at him with utter shock. Everyone was holding back their giggles but the dog, Total, fell to the ground laughing and holding his side. "Hahaha! I thought this was funny with other people but Max? God! This is too gooooooood!!!" I stepped back holding my left hand up in a fist.

"Who are you?" I asked them, "Why do you keep-pp calling m-m-me Max? I'm Carter!" I stammerd over my words, getting a little dizzy and holding onto the wall of the cave entrance next to me.  
"Max. You're Max." the dark haired boy said. Fang. The one I called out for help not because I knew him. But. It was more like _instinct. _Like I knew Fang would come.

My head hurt.

"Um guys you've got it all wrong.," I pointed to myself," I'm Carter Carson. Not some Max person."  
Angel walked forward making me step back. "Max. That's you. Mr. Chu erased your memory and made you Carter."

No.

"Mr. Chu?" I asked sarcastically, "You've gotta be kidding me Angel. Mr. Chu isn't evil! He's saving the world."  
Everyone looked at me dumbstruck. Fang came to me and looked down at me with a serious face, " _Max! You're the one who's suppose to save the world."  
_I was speechless.  
"Don't you remember anything about that? Those brain attacks you had in New York? That Voice that was in your head making you crazy?" Iggy pressed. Everyone looked so hopeful and I didn't want to dissapoint them. For some odd reason I feel really, I mean _really _responsible for them. Especially the younger kids.  
"Mr. Chu did this to you! Max remember darnit! We did so much!" Nudge grabbed me by the arms shaking me fiercly. She was _pretty _strong for her size. For thirty minutes Nudge rambled on and on about what the flock( that's what "we" call our selves) did over the past year.

* * *

Things were coming back. Small things. Awful memories. Memories of me being thrown into small dog crates and being injected with stuff all the time. The smell of floor cleaner and people in white coats looking at me like I was a _freakish prize_. I felt utter hatred and digust.

I am Maximum Ride.

This was the life I forgot? This was the life they had erased and acutally put memories of me from when I was found by my parents. I was living a total lie for three months.

Angel slipped her small hands in mine. "Calm down Max." she laughed, "You're steaming from the ears." I looked down at her and took a deep breath relaxing myself.  
"Uh okay." I sighed rocking back on my heals.  
"When are we going? The only things I feel are borwn and more brown." Iggy complained throwing a rock off the edge, he turned to me with freakishly precise direction, "Max?" My eyes widened. "Wha me?" I pointed to myself.  
"Yeah you. Or is there another Max out there?" he asked but shook his head, smaking his hand onto his forehead, "Oh wait there is..."

Suddenly an image of me looking at another girl that looked just like me flashed inside my head. She looked confused, crumpled on the ground gasping for air. The image went away and I felt dizzy again.

The really annoying thing about not having those memories then all of a sudden one flashes in your head is they never give detail. And it feels like you're a little drunk after. Oh the joy.

"Go where?" I tried again.  
"Back to our safe house." Nudge chimed from somewhere. I looked around for her to see her hovering in the air fifty feet above me. I gasped looking at her in awe.  
"You can fly? We can fly?" I turned to Fang and he nodded like it wasn't a big deal. Gazzy walked over to me, his wings extended a bit,  
"You do too."  
I felt stupid. Like a kindergartner playing with older kids and not knowing how to play the game.  
"Oh," I looked down at my feet frustrated, "I-I don't remember. Dangit. The lady pretending to be my mom said I wasn't allowed," I paused, "Screw her."  
Iggy snorted a laugh and Gazzy chuckled. Iggy walked over standing behind me and Fang was next to him. Before I knew it I was shoved off of the cliff, every swear word I know spilling out of my mouth. I was falling fast, the wind throwing my hair all around, the sound of rushing air blocking out most of my hearing. _Most of it. _

I could hear Nudge and Gazzy shouting, "Snap out your wings Max!!!!" In a second I snapped my wings out and was pulled up hard, my back feeling like I was being stabbed by knifes. Big sharp knifes. "Flap! Max! Don't drop!" Total called down. _Thanks._ I thought you were suppose to pull my wings in. I flapped hard, feeling happy as I lifted into the air with imense speed. I-I felt so alive as I glided across and down, Nudge coming out and helping me.  
"Okay try this." she flew fast upward and tucked her wings in, dive bombing a mile strait down. I tried that too. With-- let's just say it didn't go so good.  
"Whatch out!!" I crash landed right into Fang, who was standing on the ledge where they had taken me after Angel smacked me in the head with a metal pole.

Who keeps one of those? According to Angel she brought it for plan "B".

Dirt flew up everywhere and I sat up, my wings feeling itchy from the dirt in my secondary feathers.

"Dude!" the Gassman shrieked, " You were like a torpedo! Wooow! I mean it was like smash," he actually made the sound of an explosion with his mouth," and Fang was all like AGH! You were all like Watch out!" he copied our voices exactly.  
Iggy laughed and Nudge landed next to me perfectly. "You okay?"  
"Umm yeah. I think we should go now." I got up quickly from next to Fang. I chuckled, this face was all brown and dirty from face planting. He glared at me.  
"Not a word." I said reading his mind, but not in the way Angel does.

* * *

**Yeah this chapter was smaller. In this i tried to make Max begin to sound more maxlike, thats what happens when the thing that happened in here happens. which i doubt would happen. but hey it could. haha comment. **


	4. Chapter 4

**

* * *

**

**Hey! Like i said in the end of chapter 3 im gonna ease max into sounding like herself. You know like how it would be in a real book. well i decided to add some Faxness in this chapter. i was soo happy when they finally got together. I have a question, who wants Voice back in this? Let me know, i've been debating if i should or shouldnt but Voice back in. Have you noticed James Patterson changes hair a lot? in book 3 max was blonde but then she was brunette. bBut she officially is brunette. And in book 5 Brigid Dwyer was blonde now she's a red head? lol**

* * *

Flying is the best thing in the world. No doubt, or otherwise. I got the hang of flying after the first two hours and it was all smooth gliding after that. Birds make it look so easy and so do the bird kids flying with me. But when you're a beginner you can get tired. "It feels like being God." I said coasting up to Fang, he shrugged and didn't say anything. His dark hair covered his dark eyes and I couldn't see anything but my relfection. I annoyingly spit a chunk of my hair out of my mouth. "But with some downers." I laughed. He shook his head, the side of his mouth lifting into some what of a smile.  
"Well thats being a freak." he gruffed and we both chuckled.

Our eyes were lost in each others( A/N: cheezy i know) and I felt like I was in a trance.  
"Safe house down bellow." Total called over the roaring wind. I snapped out of my trance and looked down to see lot four small houses close to each other in the country.  
"Which one?" I asked scanning the ground.  
"That one." Total pointed his furry paw down at the house with black cars all around.

* * *

"MAX!" A woman wrapped her arms around me tight, crying silently. I stood stiffly, akwardly patting her back. "Max. Max I thought we lost you." she cried, she looked up at me, "Do you remember me Max?"  
The words came out painfully, "I know you're my mom. Only because Nudge told me..." I looked away. To my surprise she wasn't breaking down like other people would. She just wiped her tears away and looked at me with a warm motherly smile. The one that my fake mom never gave me. This time I could see the smile reach her eyes.

A woman, probably Brigid, burst out of the front door and ran to me. And For some reason I had the urge to run the other direction. She squeezed me in a tight bear hug. "Its so good to see you Max!"  
"Uhh yeah. Um you too..." I slowly said. She let go and looked back.  
"Oh you probably don't remember me." she tossed some of her long red hair over her shoulder and I could see Fang staring at her then at me from the corner of my eye," Hey that would be weird getting hugged by a stranger. No wonder you didn't hug me back." she laughed. Yeah lets make _that _the reason in her head.  
"Whats with the Feds?" I asked looking around at all the guys in black suits and sunglasses. They gave me the chills.  
Nudge leaned up closer to me, "They've been helping to look for you."  
"Oh." Am I really that important? Wait-- why am I even still asking that? I dont know. We walked inside the giant counrty style house, a large Mamalute dog happily wagging her tail on the living room couch.  
"Ahh. True beauty is with me. Akila." Total sighed, hopping up onto the couch and licking Akila's front paw. I chuckled and looked at Fang.  
"Does he always do that?"  
"Pretty much."  
Brigid walked up to us, mostly looking at Fang. "How did you find her?" she wanted to know. Acid churned in the pit of my stomach as she batted her eye lashes at him.  
"Um Brigid," I spoke up trying to change the subject, " Not to be rude," oh _yeah_ not to be _rude_, "But how do I know you in all of this. Nudge forgot to tell me that detail." cause Nudge practically told me my life story.

Before she could anwser I held my head, my skull feeling like it was being smashed open. Images of a boat and ice in floating water appeared in my head. Voice and thouths echoed indise my head. _I'm a scientist. yeah I know. I'm only twenty three. _Brigids voice echoed. _God. Fang is so irritating! _My thoughts echoed. _Its all about Dr. Amazing. _I heard. _I chose you Max. _Fangs voice whispered. Random images played behind my eyelids of the flock and I happy, then sad, all bloody, me and Fang fighting, Brigid flirting with Fang, and the boat. Along with other scientists smiling and talking to me.

Antarctica. I went to Ant-freaking-arctica!

"MAX!" a farmilar man's voice called. "Max are you okay?" This time I was sprawled across the couch with an ice pack on my head. Opening my eyes a slit to see everyone looking down at me. In the middle was Jeb Batcheldor. The Jeb that betrayed my flock and I. A sense of hatred washed over me.  
"Jeb?" I coughed. He looked happy through the thick glasses on his pale face. "Jeb." I said more clearly and got up quickly to my feet, making everyone jump back. My stomach clenched and unclenched.  
"Um where's my room?" I asked numbly, "Wait never mind I'll find it." The last thing I want is everyone to treat me like a sick puppy.

Walking to the stair well, I could feel eyes boring into my back. Turning around I asked annoyed, "What? Do you need anything or did I forget that you watch me go up some stairs." Everyone scrambled away leaving my mom, Jeb, and th flock at the bottom of the stairs.  
"Well," Jeb cleared his throat, "Dr. Martinez and I need to get back to work with some things for the CSM."  
"See you at dinner Max." Dr. Martinez said. Jeb and my mom dissapeared into the living room.  
Angel giggled, "You're not a sick puppy Max." I laughed.  
"Thanks."

* * *

(With Mr. Chu)

"What! You lost her Dr. Morrison" he screamed at the scientists who were suppose to be Max's parents and who were suppose to watch her.  
"I'm sorry sir." the woman, Dr. Morrison, apologized, "She was taken by the other avian hybrids."  
"Sir, they took out the gaurds with almost no problem." the man next to her said, Dr. Carson, "We are still looking for her."

Mr. Chu grumbled, rubbing his forehead with the palm of his hand, "This was one shot. And it was over in three months." he cursed. He turned around in the large aubrun chair he sat in and typed some commands into the computer, "I suppose we will just have to go back to the old plan." he pulled out a cigar from the drawer, lighting it and taking a big puff, "She won't get away this easily."

"Yes sir." Dr. Morrison mumbled.

"Now go." Mr. Chu ordered disgusted.

* * *

(Max POV)

"So Max do you remember me?" Ella pressed sitting at the edge of my bed in my room. I thought for a second.  
"You're my half sister. I saved you from some sexist morons." We laughed. The boys were out somewhere, and if memory serves( which I really hope it does) Gazzy and Iggy might cause some sort of explosion. Nudge, Angel, Total and Akila were with Ella and me.

Ella laughed clapping her hands, "Yes!"  
"So is there anything else I need to know about being me?" They laughed at what I said.  
"Well I guess you've gotta be the opposite of me in girlyness." Nudge pointed at herself with a hot pink nail. I nodded. Okay. That shouldn't be so hard.

"Haha funny Nudge." I said sarcastically.  
"But it _is_ true." Total commented. I looked at him, who was sitting on the ground with Akila. Out of kicking range. Darn.

* * *

There was a knock on my door at night and I shot up in my bed. "What?" I hissed. The door opened and Fang walked in so quietly that I might have though that was a figment of my imagination.  
"Hey." he said casually. Hey? Hey is all he could say?  
"Its midnight you know." I looked at the clock. 11:59 pm. "Sorry one minute till midnight." he smiled.  
"Yeah. I thought we could go for a midnight flight. If you want." he offered coming up to the large window and cranking it open quietly. I hesitated for a second. Flying? Good or bad. Good- I'll get practice. Bad- too much to name.  
"Sure." the word came out of my mouth foreignly. "Yeah sure I'll go." Hopping out of my bed I crawled out of the window behind Fang and we both stood on the roof, our wings outstreached for balance.

We lifted off into the night-- me akward as heck. The desert streached out for miles and miles.  
"Still haven't mastered it have you?" Fang asked from fifty feet above me.  
"Jeez. How'd you know?" I called back up. He flew in large circles in the air, his black wings outlined by the moon light. I tried to do the same, getting closer to the ground.

We landed next to a bunch of rocks in the desert. "So," I casually looked around, "I don't remember, are you and Brigid dating?"  
He looked shocked for half a second, but quickly his expression became smooth and neutral. "Why'd you think that?"  
"The way she looks at you and the way you look at her." I used all my effort to try to sound calm and casual. Not freaking and sounding jealous.  
He smiled, "No Max. I chose you." The words from the memory brain attack played in my head. Before I knew it, Fang's lips were on mine, his hand holding the back of my head.

Fang kissing me. It was coming back. Well atleast those parts. First was me kissing him when he was a mess on the beach, then in the caves, on the beach again at night, in the desert, in Honalulu, and when we were flying. Memories of the Red Haired Wonder, Sam, and Brigid when she first met us. Feelings of pain, anger, happyness, all flooded into me. I felt light headed, but relized I needed to breathe. The fuzzy went away when I inhaled and kissed him back. My heart pounded inside of my chest.

All those teen magazines weren't kidding when they mean a boy can rock your world.

Finally we pulled apart. Our breathing becoming steady again. "Max. I chose you." he said again. Is it possible to feel the way I'm feeling right now?

* * *

(With some of the flock.. I mean a few flock members.. you know what I mean)

"Nudge! Nudge!" the Gasman shook Nudge in her sleep. Her fist automatically shot up, getting Gazzy in the mouth.  
"Nudge!" he screamed. She opened her eyes and looked up as Gazzy rubbed his jaw.  
"Oh!" she covered her mouth with her hands, "Sorry Gazzy." she snickered.  
"Come on," he tugged on Nudges sleve, "Angel and Iggy are waiting outside." Before she could say anything, the Gasman pulled her out of bed and they ran silently( for a bird kid) down the hall, down the stair, and outside to where Angel and Iggy waited.  
"Okay what did you drag me out of my bed for?" Nudge asked.  
"Well I think someone is coming here. A bad person. And we need to go find Max and Fang." Angel whispered.  
"Oh. Erasers?" Iggy asked looking around catiously.  
Angel shook her head, "No. I dont know. Just something bad." Iggy huffed. It was so strange the way Angel could sense things.  
"Can they ever cut us any slack?" the Gasman grumbled.

"What's all the hubub bubs?"

The four of them jumped almost three feet in the air. " TOTAL!" they all shrieked when turning to see-- and Iggy recognizing his voice-- Total licking his paw casually, a few feet away.  
"What?" he asked.  
Gazzy gaped at him, "What? A little heads up would be nice."  
Total trotted over, "_Yeah. _Making a loud noice when I was coming outside would _so_ totaly not wake everyone up inside." The Gasman grumbled and rolled his eyes.

There was a loud, low whine coming from the sky, and the flock looked up to see something falling from the sky. "Bomb!" Nudge screamed. The lights inside the house began switching on quickly and Dr. Martinez, Jeb, Ella, and Brigid ran out of the house in their jammies, Akila and John Abate close behind.

"Its a bomb!! A bomb!" the Gasman ran around the driveway flailing his arms. "Get behind the rocks!" he shouted to everyone.

**_BOOOOOOM!!!!! _**

Everyone dived to the ground, covering their heads and necks with their arms. The bomb went off with an eardrum poping boom making Nudges hearing going fuzzy.  
"Is everyone okay?!" Dr. Martinez shouted over the sound of the house burning and being crisped.

* * *

(Max POV)

Is it normal for a disaster to strike everytime Fang and I leave? You tell me please, person who is reading this...

Fang and I both heard it. A loud bang. The sound of a bomb going off. We both shot to our feet looking in the direction of where the sound came from. From a few miles away we could see something big burning.

"Its the house!" I shouted, snapping out my wings, running and lifting into the air with imense speed. Fang was close behind me, our wings on over drive. Adrenaline poured into my veins, my heart beating so fast I wonder if Fang could hear it. A thought poped inside of my head and I wasn't sure if it was me or someone--something else. Maybe a memory.

_You can fly super fast. Remember Max. Hold onto Fang and think about flying as fast as you can. _

"Fang grab onto my arm and flap!" I ordered him. Without any other word, Fang looped his arm in mine from a few feet below me. Our wings brushing each others and sometimes hitting our faces.

I took a deep breath, thinking to go faster. With one large flap I was going fast. I mean super fast. The wind throwing my hair everywhere, and my eyes watering a bit.

We reached in about two minutes to see the safe house as burnt as a marshmellow.

Oh boy.

* * *

**SOOOOO? Should i put Voice back? OR not? Comment plz! thanks **


	5. Chapter 5

**_CONTEST! iF YOU THINK YOU'RE THE BIGGEST FAN OF SOMETHING MAXIMUM RIDE THEN COMMENT AND TELL ME! THE WINNER WILL BECOME A NEW CHARACTER IN THE STORY FOR THE WHOLE STORY!!!!Almost like a flock member or something if you want!! TELL ME IF YOU WANNA BE GOOD OR BAD. _So hurry up guys you could be in the story. Just tell me in a little detail why. if you win then i'll PM you and get the detail for the story. okay? I have the _DEADLINE IS ON 8-22-09 at 11:59PM!!!!!! SO HURRY GUYS!!!!!!!!_ ps. i'll mention one of your stories if you are ONE OF THE FIRST 20 ppl to enter. good luck!!!! this is gonna be a big contest!**

* * *

(Max POV)

"Max! Fang!" Gazzy ran over to us covered with sand, dirt, and debris. The house was up in flames and the screech of a fire truck was coming closer from the distance, "A bomb was dropped! A bomb!" He looked pretty calm, well for someone who almost got blown to pieces. But we've been getting used to that right? Unfortunetly right. A few of the FBI agents who were staying here to "protect us from any danger" came over with Dr. Martinez and Ella.  
"Agent Booth here." one of them said, " We need to get you all to another safer safe house." a hint of irritation and dissapointment was on his face. "Agent Brennen will take you there." he nodded with his head to the brunette woman standing next to him.  
"A truck will come to get you all," she said with some warmth in her voice, but that didn't stop my skin from crawling. I raised my hand.  
"Um how about we follow you."  
Agent Brennen raised her eyebrows, "Oh and how is that?" Okay does this lady even know who she is protecting. Before anyone could say anything Gazzy snapped out his long wings, almost hitting me in the head. I glanced at the flock and Ella, waiting anxiously to see the Feds' expression.

"Flying." he said like it was no big deal and the others struggled to smother their giggles. Both of the agents blinked in surprise, their eyes scanning his wings again and again. Agent Booth straightened up and cleared his throat. I bit the inside of my cheek trying not to giggle.  
"Very well then just follow over head. We'll get cameras on you." Without any other word they nodded and walked away.

John Abate walked over, Brigid behind him, both wearing charred jammies. "And while the truck is coming," he was looking at me mostly, "No Charging Off Max."

"Charging off?!" I spit, "Why would I charge off?"  
"Because it's in your nature." Total murmered and I gave him an annoyed glance. I silently counted to ten inside my head when I heard someone say, "Maximum 'Charging Off ' Ride."

Brigid sighed, "All of our stuff and equipment is gone. But on the bright side the very importand pieces were saved. Thank God for the underground chambers we put those in." she gave a small laugh.  
"Yes," Dr. Martinez said in all seriousness, "Lets hope some of those CSM files have copies somewhere."

* * *

The truck came a long hour later, after the firefighters left and right before the police arrived. It was a black Hummer ( of cource) that was tinted black. But apperently this one was very eco friendly and was missle proof. _Missle _proof. What happened to good 'ol _bullet proof.  
"_We'll see you in three hours," Dr. Martinez uttered while getting into the Hummer, "Then we'll discuss everything else then okay sweetie?"

I nodded, clenching and unclenching my hands, losening my wing muscles. "Okay." She gave me a quick hug.  
Total was sitting on the seat of the car, kissing Akila's paw and talking with her, "Don't worry my sweet Akila we'll be together soon. Nothing can seperate us." I rolled my eyes and patted Total's head, "Come on Total it's only three hours." He hopped out of the car with his little black nose high in the air trotting to Angel.  
"It will feel like three million years to me." he mummbled.

We watched as the Hummer drove off into the not-so silent night. Everyone one snapped out their wings and one by one we raced across the sand and lifted into the air.  
"Come on Total perk up," I said to Total nudging him forward with my hand, "Be a man or whatever for Akila." He turned his little head and looked at me for a second.  
"You know what," he straightened in the air form a slouch to a dogly stance, "You're right. Akila is a strong female and I should be the same; a strong male for her."  
I smirked," Yup."

At this point maybe about 40% of my memory was recovered and kept on rising. If only the scientists at the School could've made us super duper smart and able to remember things faster. Didn't their wacked out minds think of that. I mean they gave us_ everything else_.

"Max! Hello Earth to Max!" Nudge waved her hand in front of my face, her wings brushing mine at the downstroke becasue she was five feet above me.  
"Wha? Oh sorry."  
Nudge laughed, "I was asking if you wanted to rest real quick."  
"Nudge," I began, "I may have lost my memory but I can still do stuff we used to. I didn't forget how to do those parts."  
Except maybe how to freaking fly. She smiled a heart warming smile and nodded.  
"Right."

We'd about flown 2 and a half hours south from my instincts and the sky was showing hints of light, the Hummer a small speck on the dirt road.

"Do you think we could--oh never mind that is totaly stupid. Maybe-oh no. How about--yeah if I want to ruin our relationship." he muttered mostly to himself trying to come up with ways to become supportive to Akila and be a "strong male".  
"Calm down Total. You have a long time to figure this out. Its not like this is your wedding you're planning." Nudge patted his head. He sighed shaking his head.  
"You're right."

Fang and I hadn't really spoken about the makeout session we'd had hours ago; only things about the flock, Mr. Chu, and the whole bomb situation.

_You need to focus now Max. Focus on remembering and focus on saving the world.  
_My eyes bulged and I stopped breathing for a second. Oh I remembered this very well. _Are you back Voice?  
_For once it gave me an answer back that wasn't all fortune cookieish.  
_Yes Max. _

* * *

The Voice didn't answer back to any other questions I had. Well that was typical Voice right?

We were still following the tricked out missle proof Hummer, which had stopped at the edge of a large concreate strip. A landing strip in the middle of the desert with a huge jet on it. The flock landed in a running stop where the Hummer was parked and Dr. Martinez, Ella, John Abate, Brigid, Akila, and the agents waited for us. Total ran to Akila and they both licked each other, wagging their tails fast. I had to admit it was cute.

"Well the jet is waiting for us. Come on." John said as we walked up to them.  
"Where are we going?" Gazzy asked and added, "Besides a safe house?" Ella bent down and whispered something into his ear which made him perk up. "Oh cool. I love that place." he said to her.

"Where are we going?" I asked Angel.

_New York City. _The words appeared in my head and I looked down at Angel who smiled and nodded happily.

New York City here we come again.

* * *

**Rember! The contest! you dont have to be a fanfict memeber either! read above about the maximum ride contest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! oh and yeah i know short chapter. **


	6. Chapter 6

**Well I got this one comment or whatever and i just wanna say that i cant and_ dont_ want to replace james patterson in writing maximum ride. i mean this is just me writing this because i love maximum ride and dont wanna replace it. the real books are the best. yeah i might be a little rough around the edges of writing. so if you dont like my story then _stop reading it and BACK OFF. _if it sucks then dont read it. i'm doing this for fun. **

* * *

The inside of the jet was pretty big and cozy, but too small for a bird kid. This time the jet was given to us by the big guy. The_ president_.

I sat on the large recliner not able to relax, ready to claw anyones eyes out.  
_Calm down Max. Lean back and close your eyes. _the Voice instructed. I rolled my eyes, clenching my teeth.  
_Long time no hear Voice. _I thought leaning back and closing my eyes. Once again the Voice didn't answer. Brigid came over and sat down next to me putting her hand on my arm, which made me tense up all over again.  
"I know how you guys lived in the sewers in New York," I gave her a questioned look, "Fang told me. But if it brings back any painful memories, I just want to tell you that you can talk to me. Like a best friend, or an older sister."  
Of cource Fang told her. She's Dr. Amazing a flock member wanna-be. "Umm don't worry I already have best friends and have a younger sister to talk to about it," I slowly moved my arm away and pretended to scratch my nose, "Yeap. But thanks Dr. Ama---Brigid."

For a second I thought I saw anger flash in her eyes but she smiled, "That's fine Max. Haha I'll just listen to Fang." I'm no Angel but I could sort of read her mind, or atleast through the lines. She should of just said, "Well then Max. I'll just go talk to Fang and flirt with him to make your skin crawl." She got up and went to talk to Fang who listened intenly.  
Somebody just shoot me please ( not really).  
Sitting back I scanned the jet. Angel was playing poker with Angent Booth and winning most of his money. Poor sap hope someone tells him soon or Angel could be controling the F.B.I soon.

Iggy and Gazzy were watching _X-Men _on the 74 inch flat screen TV on the wall. And Nudge was with her now proclaimed BFF Ella.  
Total trotted into the center of the room and cleared his throat, "Um everyone can I have your attention." The room was quiet and everyone's attention was to Total. "I would like the flock to meet me in the corner immediatly along with John and Valencia and Ella."

I raised my eyebrows. What was this pooch up to? I got up and went to the end where Akila and Total were waiting with the rest of the flock. Brigid walked over too. "flock members, John, Valencia, and Ella only." Total said to her. Brigid looked shocked and stepped back.  
"I think of myself as a flock member." she said, "We're a team." I waited to hear what he said. But Total didn't say anything.  
"A flock member is an avain hybrid. And I don't think you're John, Dr. Martinez or Ella." Fang said to her smoothly, "Sorry Brigid, you'll have to wait over there." he pointed to the couches.

I stat next to Fang shocked. Fang just insulted Dr. Amazing, the person who he has been telling his stories to. I couldn't help but bite my cheek trying not to laugh. Brigid looked shocked too, "Okay." she mummbled through the fakest smile in the world and walked back to sit next to Agent Brennen on the couch.

"Okay," Total said in somewhat of a whisper, "Akila and I are happy and I'll still be with the flock don't worry." he took a deep breath.  
"Total what are you saying?" I asked in a warning tone. Total turned to Angel, who looked over joy and nodded for him to tell everyone.  
"Okay. Guys, Akila will soon be the mother of my puppies."

I stopped breathing and looked at him in shock, "Total! How did? Wha? When?" Nudge, Ella, and Angel were screaming with joy, kissing and hugging Total and Akila on the head. Screaming. Screaming. How could Total and Akila have puppies? On the USS Minnesota submarine Total and I had talked and he wanted to settle with Akila but I didn't think they'd go this far. But Hey we get four or five new flock members, thats a good thing. Sighing I said, "Total I'm really happy for you. But who's gonna take care of a scottie and mamalute mix with possible wings?" I scratched behind Akila's ears and she barked happily.

"We could discuss this when the puppies are born." Dr. Martinez said smiling and petting Akila on her stomach, "This is great. But I'll need to look at Akila right away." I turned to Angel,  
"Can you ask her how they are?" She nodded and looked at Akila with a calm expression.

_There are four puppies. Four puppies. _There were four puppies. Was that Voice doing what Voice always does?  
_Okay Voice. Or Jeb. Whoever you are. _Just for the heck of it I waited for an answer, expecting Voice to not answer like always. But this time it got me.  
_You're welcome Max. _It answered. I rolled my eyes. Of cource.

"There are four puppies," I blurted out instantly.  
"How do you know?" Angel asked.  
"The Voice I hear inside my head." I mummbled sounding annoyed.  
Angel shook her head and laughed, "She's okay. I mean besides the regular things."

* * *

We landed a few hours later in the middle of a forest just outside of New York City. My knees felt like rubber and I raced behind John Abate out of the jet. "Well where to next?" I asked Dr. Martinez. I was still kind of getting the whole Dr. Martinez is my mom and Jeb( out of everyone in the world) is my dad.  
"There's a cabin where we'll be staying," Jeb said coming up behind Dr. Martinez. Great. Dr. Martinez turned to me,  
"I suppose you and the flock will be following us from the sky?" She read my mind. I nodded. "Okay it is all settled."she said and I walked back to where the flock was standing.

I clapped my hands to get everyones attention, "Yo listen up. We're gonna be going to a cabin somewhere here. So Iggy, Gazzy no bombs please. Its gonna be small." I gave them a warnig look, "I'm giving you a warning look Ig."  
The Gasman gave me a small angelic gin and said, "Okay Max whatever you say." I narrowed my eyes and smiled writing a mental note to watch him. The last thing we need is to go to another safe house cause this one was contaminated by the Gasman.

"Is there gonna be a lake?" asked Angel, "Cause I really want to go fishing."  
Nudge jumped up and down, "Oh and I want to try my new gills!" she gasped and then turned to Angel about to say something but Angel cut her off.  
"Yeah! Mermaids!" Before I could say anything else Ella came running over and sqealling.

"Angel! Nudge! Mom said we all could go shopping in New York City!" That sparked a whole chain of sqealling.  
"It would be fun to go back to Central Park." Fang said to me.  
"Yeah." I agreedm, remembering us sleeping in subway tunnels, running away from Erasers, and us crashing into the Institute.

"The car is here," Ella said looking over, "Meet you there." She raced over to Jeb and Dr. Martinez.

One by one we snapped out our wings and ran forward, lifting high into the air with a few powerful strokes. The sun was shining bright and we had to sheild our eyes when we were going higher and higher. We flew in a tight "V" formation with me leading in the front.

"Fang look!" Nudge pointed to the hawks that were flying down bellow us, "Remember like in Arizona. But these ones are smaller." Fang looked up and nodded,  
"Yeah those were huge." An image flashed in my brain of large raptors' nests and the hawks flying with Nudge and Fang as if they were a part of their flock. Then of Nudge showing us how to fly better.  
The Gasman's eyes bugged and they looked as if they would pop out of his head.  
"What is it Gazzy?" I asked breaking away from the formation and flying a few feet bellow him. Something Good? Bad? Horrible? He pointed to a medow in the distance with black creatures. My heart stopped for a second and I couldn't believe my eyes.

"Erasers.." he choked.

* * *

Erasers!! Erasers! Last time I checked all the Erasers were destroyed. Same with Itex. The School was just some memory now. Atleast I thought it was.

My head whipped to the side to see Fang's face in shock too. "Erasers!! Noooo!" Nudge moaned in a whisper.  
Iggy shook his head, "But how? I thought we were done with those headaches." He rubbed his temples probably remembering how Erasers made our life hell. Literally. My first instinct was to get away as fast as possible and to get into fighting mode.

"Whada we gonna do Max?" Angel asked her voice shaking.  
"Can you get anything from them? Ya know, get 'em to go away or ignore us if they see us?"  
"Ummm sure let me try," her brows furrowed and she focused on the Erasers. "I'm getting thoughts. Farmiliar thoughts. Like _find the mutant bird freakes._ and stuff like that." Gazzy sighed. "If you think about it, I sorta missed the Erasers. Kinda makes everything feel like how it used to be. Well kinda. You know?" he gave a small grin. He did have some kind of point. Even though all my memoires were'nt back, this did feel a little normal. Just like my destiny to save the world.

We all broke out of formation, gaining altitude and dissapearing behind some clouds. Angel looked confused. "What is it sweetie?" I asked coming up and flying next to her just far enough that we didn't hit each other in the heads with our wings.  
"The Erasers.... they have thoughts but its like they're robots too. I mean I can hear other voices inside their heads. Like commands coming from somewhere. Like an evil Voice," she shook her head and the hair band she was wearing slipped and plopped down onto her nose.

_Is that possible Voice? _I asked in my head.  
_Everything is possible. You know that Max. _It chimed in my head and I rolled my eyes. Of cource. An answer but not an answer.  
_Of cource. _

Everyone knows that nothing goes peachy in our life for long. So is it any surprise when we were attacked?

* * *


	7. Chapter 7

**Heey just wanted to say THANKS to Sweet-bubbly-girl, Maximumfreak96, Twilighternerd1220, and StarofCalamity for being the first to enter the contest and following the story :) And i know ppl might think other wise but i think Maximum Ride is better than Twilight. But i still like Twilight. Sorry but i'm not really so much into the whole vampire love stories. im more into mutant bird kids kicking some grown up butts :) oh and the _WINNERS NAMEs WILL BE POSTED IN THE END OF THE CHAPTER :) _oh and i knw my fight sequence is a little bad. haha but i'm trying... oh and _I've decided to put 2! people in..._**

* * *

(3rd Person)

"Max watch out!" Nudge shrieked when a large net came flying up at Max. She flew to the right pulling Nudge with her just in time for the net to miss them. But then a second one came flying up but this time an even larger one.  
"Ahh!" Angel screamed when the first net came down on her and wrapped around her little body, making her fall fast.  
"Angel!" Fang and Max shot down towards her with the rest of the flock close behind, the wind making their cheeks burn and eyes water. Extending her arms, Max tried to catch her. She grabbed onto the side of the net but pulled back when a burning electic shock went up her arm. "Fang don't touch it." Max ordered. _Hang on Angel! You'll be okay. I'll get you out. _She thought trying not to panick, hoping Angel picked them up.

Fang reached into his pocket and pulled out a pocket knife and slashing at the net again and again, making sparks fly around the blade. Nothing. This net meant business. He cursed under his breath and ground was getting closer and closer each second. Angel feel onto something that looked like a huge blue air bag. Like people use in movies. Erasers swarmed around it, waiting for Angel. Max and Fang began to slow down, along with the rest of the flock.

"What are we gonna do?" Max murmered to herself She tried hard to remember what she would do in this situation, what the actual Max would do before getting her memory erased. _Fight. Duh!_ Max's feet hit the ground and she didn't even stop, smashing head on into a a couple of Erasers and making them go flying backward. The Erasers growled, snapping their teeth together.

An Eraser lunged tword her slashing its big hairy paw across her cheek. She could feel his claws dig into her skin making large gashes and blood trickling down her face. Jumping into the air she round house kick him in the snout and crashing her fist down onto his head HARD. He barked and pulled back for a second, then moving like lightning to the side and kicking her in the legs, making Max fall to the ground.

Fang and Iggy distracted the Erasers as Nudge and the Gasman ran to Angel, Total hovering above her. Two Erasers blocked their way and lunged twords them. "Nudge look out!" the Gasman screamed when an Eraser grabbed her from the back. Nudge scwirmed in his arms, trying to use her weight and break free. "You!" she screamed at the Erasers, swearing at him like a truck driver. Something she was good at. "Ahhh!" Nudge swung her head back into the Erasers nose, her hair clips cutting him. Gazzy shot into the air before the second Eraser could grab him and pulled a little bottle cap shape of a device out of his pocket.

He dropped it onto the Eraser's back. Nudge's eyes widened when the device started to beep. Then BOOM! The Eraser expolded, sending Eraser chunks all over flock.

Max sprinted to Nudge and punching the Eraser in the head, trying to pull Nudge free. "Oh yuck Eraser chunk in my mouth!" Nudge gagged.

There was a loud pop sound and the Eraser that had Nudge went _limp_. His eyes wide in horror. There was another pop and another Eraser went down. One by one the Erasers went down a bullet hole in each of their heads. Max looked around but couldn't see anyone different.

"Who's doing that?" Angel called from on top of the air bag. Max and the flock ran over to her and slowly pulled at the bottom of the net but it shocked them. Max punched the ground. "How are we gonna get her out of this net?!" she groaned frustrated.

"I can help you with that." someone said.

* * *

**okay i know. Seriously short chapter. But i guess a few chapters can be short. lol Ok the moment. and the winners are _Sweet- Bubbly- Girl and Maximum Freak 96!!!!! _**

**_So just comment or pm me the details like what u want ur name to be in it, if u are good or bad, and the way you look. and other stuff you want. oh and try to get it in by like next monday Aug. 31st or I'll pick another person. _**

**_Thanks :)_**


	8. Chapter 8

**So again the winners are Sweet- Bubbly- Girl and Maximum Freak96 but like I said, by monday so i'll have to pick the new winner. So the new winner is _Twilighernerd1220._ So reply and tell me what u wanna look like and stuff :) oh and i made this new character look like the girl on the angel expirament cover. if you know what i'm talking about. the hair anyways. _this is a message to sweet-bubbly- girl, _I'm making you thirteen years old. if you don't mind.**

* * *

(Max POV)

There was a loud pop sound and the Eraser that had Nudge went _limp_. His eyes wide in horror. There was another pop and another Eraser went down. One by one the Erasers went down a bullet hole in each of their heads. I looked around but couldn't see anyone different. There were no F.B.I agents, no police, to army, nobody.

"Who's doing that?" Angel called from on top of the air flock ran over to her and slowly pulled at the bottom of the net but it shocked them. I punched the ground. "How are we gonna get her out of this net?!" I groaned frustrated.

"I can help you with that." someone said. Fang and I jumped off of the air bag when a girl stepped out from behind some of the trees. She looked oddly familiar, like I had seen her somewhere. She walked slowly twords us standing a few inches shorter in front of me. Her hair was dirty blonde all choppy at her shoulders and her eyes were a peircing green. I looked at her with the _If-you're-dangerous-and-might-hurt-my-family- I'll-rip-you-into-a-million-pieces_ look. A hint of fear showed in her eyes and she took a step back. "I'm Haley."

I did say something, "Max." my expression didn't change.

"Don't worry, I'm not evil." she reasurred. Heard that from almost every evil person I've met. Like Anne Walker and Jeb, to name a few. "Let me show you." she said and walked back, my eyes on her at all times. Fang came up next to me and I could feel his tensenss coming off of him.

She took of the balck leather jacket she was wearing to reveal large brown and white wings; fully streached probably thirteen feet long, her primarys all white and her secondarys a light chocolate color. The words _New York City _flashed inside my head. New York? Then the memories hit me like a subway train, all jumbled up and quick, making me fall back onto my back.

_The flock and I were underground in a room and Angel had found something. Found more expiraments. Total was there. And a girl in a cage, a girl with wings that ran off before we could do anything. Erasers swarming us. Me fighting Ari. Me killing Ari for the first time. Breaking his neck and Jeb screaming the words that changed my life instantly. "You killed your own brother!" "Oh can we keep him Max?" Me kissing Fang on the beach when he was hurt. The Institute. My brain attacks in the subway tunnel. "Max look out!" Then..._

Blank

* * *

I sat up rubbing my head and swearing. "God I hate those." I mummbled. First it was cause of my helpful and annyoing Voice and now cause I got my whole memory deleted.

_Dont worry Max they'll go away soon. _Angel's voice chimed inside my head.

"Angel!" I said and got up, stumbling over to where she still sat in the net. I turned to Haley, "Okay I'll take your word for a second," I began slowly, " How do we get her out?" Haley walked over and studied the net for a second. "This is new. Dude you guys must be important expiraments." she mummbled. You mean expiraments that are a big pain on the butt to everyone, don't listen to anyone, wreck everything, being the ones that got away, shut down Itex and the school, and are saving the world then yeah. Not to sound so full of myself or anything.

Haley nodded, her jaw set, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a red pocket knife. "Got this little thing from a fallen Itex in Germany. Thanks to those bird kids that did all of this stuff and helped us." she tossed it in the air and caught it. I could hear Nudge and Gazzy chuckle.  
"Umm that was us Haley." Nudge said. Haley looked at each of the flock memebers then at me.  
"Maximum Ride?" she asked shocked. I nodded, feeling my cheeks burn. "Woow. You're the ones who saved me and my flock?"

I looked at her with a questioned look, "Your flock?"  
She looked up at the sky and her eyes glistened, "Ummm they were-- there are only three out of five left. And I don't know where the other two are." She looked back at us and put on a tought face, "Well this isn't about me. Let's get Angel out of this net."

She walked over to the net, "Um Angel this might sting you a little." A small edged knife flipped out and Haley pulled at part of the net, blue and red wires poking out.  
Angel fliched and I could see her barley being affected my the shocks. My little trooper.

Ten minutes later the net sparked and sizzled. "There." Haley said wiping the sweat off of her forehead. Angel pushed the net away and hopped off of the blue air bag.  
"Max!" she called and jumped into the air pulling out her white angelic wings, laughing, and flying over me.

"Okay lets hit the air." I told the flock and turned to Haley. Haley did help Angel and got the net off without shocking herself. But then I have to think about the saftey of the flock. For all she knows she could be under the control of Mr. Chu like I was.

_Trust your kind Max. Chu does not know of other birds. The birds unite. _The Voice chimed inside of my head. For once I was actually glad that the Voice gave me some advice. But _the birds unite? _Was that suppose to mean something more. The birds unite. Bird kids unite. I sighed and tucked that information away in my head to worry about later.

"You should come with us." Angel told Haley. Haley's eyes light up.  
"Really?" she breathed. She looked at me then back at Angel.  
"Yeah." Angel chirpped. Angel looked at me and smiled sweetly and winked. My eyebrows raised. When did we make Angel the leader?  
Haley turned to me, "Max?"

I nodded. "Okay but," there was an edge in my voice, "Anything suspicous then boom you're gone. You'll be under my watch the whole time. And if you do anything to hurt the ones I love you won't know what hit you."  
Her face was neutral, "Okay."

One by one we lifted into the air. The wind whipped through my hair and I took a deep breath. Ahh. Paradise. Down bellow I could see a house in the distance, hidden in the trees barley noticable with my raptor vision.

We landed with a thud behind some trees and approached the house. We all looked at the wooden cabin.

"Wow." Angel breathed.  
"Dude. Is that a cabin?" Gazzy asked in awe.  
"More like a log mansion." I said .  
"No wonder Lincoln lived in one of these." Nudge said.

* * *

**So yeah i know it took long to get this. haha so remember _twilighternerd220_ is the new second winner so get in the details okay? cool and i promise to get the next chapter in.  
**

**~SM~**


	9. Chapter 9

**Heeeyyyy! Ok chapter 9, and i promise this one will come faster than chapter 8 =) Did you guys hear about the _New Maximum Ride book _coming soon? Its called _FANG._ And in this one they're in Africa. And Angel tells the flock that _Fang is gonna die before Max. _Oh spooky. For more information check out james patterson's website and those videos he has for Maximum Ride.**

* * *

Cabin.

Definition- a small wooden house usually in wood land areas.

The cabin we're staying at.

Definition- a wooden mansion with seven bed rooms that have their own bathrooms, a huge five star kitchen, a dining room, a game room with all the arcade games you could think of, a furnished basement, a huge living room, a high tech computer lab, a secret safe room, a sun room, an indoor swimming pool hall with a hot tub, and missle proof windows, and missle proof lining under the wood of the cabin. _Missile proof. _And to top it all off bullet and fire proof sheets.

* * *

"We want to ensure you kids pure safety and comfort." Agent Booth said when our tour of the house was over and we sat in the kitchen. Total hopped onto one of the bar stools near the island.  
"I think you got that well." he said licking up a piece of chicken from Angel's plate. Everyone else agreed.  
"And we have a top of the line security system so nobody can get in or if needed out." Agent Brennen added.

Nobody can get out. Is that screaming something bad to you too?

"Umm cool." Haley said with a concerned look on her face.

I took a deep breath, clearing my head and chugged down the rest of my Dr. Pepper.

"Okay," Gazzy said hopping off of the stool, "I'm gonna go swim! Come on."  
"Oh me too." Nudge and Iggy said at the same time and followed, with Angel, Haley and Total at their heels. A few second later I could hear Gazzy and Iggy screaming "Cowabunga" and then a huge splash. Followed by Nudge screaming at them some not so nice words.

I laughed and turned to Fang. "Come on." and walked twords the pool room. "Are you coming?" I asked Fang when he didn't move.

"Coming where?" Brigid asked coming from behind me and sitting in my seat, next to Fang. Her question directed more to Fang than me after our little spat in the jet. Which was on my top ten list of _greatest things that have happened.  
_Agent Booth cleared this throat, "Well we'll talk later." and they left the room.

"Swimming." I replied normally. On the inside I wanted to scream " Swimming and you can't come Dr. Amazing". But I don't need anymore drama than what I have everyday.  
Fang nodded. "That's great. I really want to try out that hot tub,"Dr. Amazing laughed and got up, "I'll go change okay?" She laughed again and went up stairs to her room.

I rolled my eyes. "So are you coming?" I asked Fang again.  
He thought for a second and got up walking next to me. "Yeah."

* * *

"What the heck is that?" I asked Gazzy when Fang and I entered the humid pool hall with our towels. He picked it up and showed it to me like it was a trophy.  
"Its the _Wavematic 3000_. It's suppose to make waves. You know like at Geauga Lake? When we were in Ohio? The wave pool?" He stopped and bit his tongue. "Sorry. Forgot."  
"Its okay. But how did you make this exaclty?" there was a warning tone in my voice.  
"Hehe we might need a new thing for the washer and dryer and maybe a new blender."  
"Gazzy."  
"Don't worry Max."

I sat back on my heels, "But how do you know it won't electrocute us?" He didn't say anything.  
"We could test it in the hot tub?" Iggy said coming out of the pool, shaking the water off of his wings.  
"Yeah!" Gazzy said and jumped to his feet, running to the hot tub.

"Okay stand back." Iggy said. The Gasman held the _Wavematic 3000_ over his head and looked at everyone.  
"Now testing the newest wave making technology the _Wavematic 300!" _Genlty he placed it in the still watered hot tub and pushed the red button. Nothing. A disapointed look came over his face. Haley walked over.  
"Here I could help." she stood up and jiggled the _Wavematic 3000 _a screw falling out of it and placing it back in the water. I looked at her suspiciously.

Note to self: watch her.

There was a low rumble and the water began to move in small waves then they got bigger and bigger till water was spilling out of the side. "Yeeeessss!!!!! It works! It works!!" Gazzy and Iggy high fived and turned the _Wavematic _out and ran to the pool.

"Yes!" the Gasman shouted and dove into a wave.  
"This is sooo cool!" Nudge said, hovering over the pool and dove in. Angel popped her little head out of the water,  
"All this needs is fish to play with. Do you think we could get fish when we go to New York Max?"  
I smiled, "Maybe Ange."  
"Do you think you could make them bigger?" Haley asked Iggy and he shrugged.  
"I think that's how high they'll go without you know using up all the electricity in the house." he replied.

"Wow!" Dr. Amazing said coming into the room wearing a yellow bikini. "That's amazing!" John Abate, Ella, Dr. Martinez, Akila, and Jeb followed behind her.  
"Ohmigod!" Ella said, "Waves! Waves that's so cool." Even Akila barked happily when she saw the waves.  
"How did you do this?" Jeb asked.

The Gasman grinned, "The _Wavematic 3000_ made by Gasman and Iggy Inc. With a little help from The Haley Industry."

I walked over to the waters edge and jumped in while Dr. Wonderful, Amazing, Brigid went and sat next to Fang and began talking. Acid churned in my stomach but I ignored it and went underwater. The warm water felt good on my wings and I pulled them out a bit then pulling them back against my back.

I loved the fact that I had gills. I mean wings, lungs and gills? How much better could it get? Wait never mind it couldn't.

_The best things for survival Max. The three things that make you and your friends even more special than you already are. _The Voice chimed.  
I breathed out forming tons of bubbles in my face and rolled my eyes, _Thanks Voice--oh sorry I mean Jeb. _

I looked as Fang and Brigid jumped into the water at the same time. Fang looked at me then back at Brigid and smirked when she made a weird face with her goggles on. I ignored him and swam towards Nudge, Angel, Haley, and Ella.

"Booo!" I shouted behind Ella when surfacing.  
"EEEEEPPPPPPP!!!!!!" she screamed and spun around in the water, almost hitting me in the head with her snorkel.

* * *

Mr. Chu sat in his office and waited for Captain 2 to finish her report. "Yes and?" he asked after taking a puff of his cigar.  
"The odd thing, Sir, is that the mutants didn't fight our robots. They fought the mutant guards of Itex. The Erasers as everyone called them. I know for a fact that we haven't created them and that this is someone else."

Mr. Chu's eyes widened, "How could this be? Is Itex resurfacing?"  
Captain 2 didn't say anything.  
"Well?"  
"I don't think so. The Director of Itex and the scientists are mostly in hiding and most of the Itex labs are destroyed. It couldn't be possible for them to make Erasers. And Maximum Ride 2 betrayed Itex, her location is not know to anyone, not even the remaining Itex experiments."

"This is strange. Get Lab 2 and tell them this." he said.

* * *

**So whacha think? Comment! Favorite! Subscribe!!!!! Come on guys. Oh and Twilighternerd1220 remember! you're the new winner or we're just gonna have one winner person in the story. Thanks. =)**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10 is here!! Okay this chapter in the beginning is Fax and the rest you'll have to read to find out. **

**

* * *

**

(Max POV)

Tommorow we were suppose to go to New York City and talk with another supposedly "rich and powerful" person who could help the CSM even more. And Angel was pushing to go to New York City because she still wants to get fish for the swimming pool. The "cabin" we were staying at was actually some safe hideaway thing that powerful people from around the world came to if they were in danger. This place wasn't on a map and you couldn't really Google Map it either. And it had all the security of Area 51.  
Does that ring any horrific, spine tingling bells for you? The School maybe?

Unfortunately because there were so many people staying at the safe house we had to share rooms. The Gasman and Iggy got one room, then Angel, Akila, and Total in one, Dr. Martinez and Ella next to them, John Abate and Fang in the next, Jeb got his own room for some reason, the Agents got their own room, and I was left to share rooms with Brigid.

"I can sleep on the couch." I said to Dr. Martinez when we were the only two downstairs. Flopping down on the couch I acted like it was the most comfiest couch I had ever laid on. Which it was the comfiest couch from what I remember anyway.  
"Max."There was a motherly warning in her voice, "Upstairs in those rooms are much safer and the materials_ You_ sleep in will keep you safe sweetie."  
That was the lamest excuse I had ever hey she was my mom, I can't say anything to her like that. And there was that word again. Safe. Safe this, safe that.

We argued for another fifteen minutes until she finally won and I had to share a room with Dr. Amazing. I slumped on the couch and Dr. Martinez came over, sitting down next to me.  
"Max, honey, why do you dislike Brigid so much?" she finally blurted out in a whisper. I looked at her with a mild shocked expression and kept my mouth shut just in case my whole heart and soul came spilling out.  
"I don't dislike her." I finally managed. She chuckled.  
"Max I can see it? Is it because she's treating you poorly? Is it," she paused as if thinking of what to say, "Is it because of Fang?" Yes! Yes! I thought Fang and me were together but Aggh!!! I wanted to scream.  
"No it's not about Fang."  
She patted my hand and smiled, "Don't worry Max. If you need to talk, I'm down the hall."  
"Thanks."

* * *

I made my way up the stairs and almost smashed into Fang. "In your little world again Max?" he asked with a hint of amusement.  
"When am I not?" I hissed. Fang was close to me, our faces a few inches apart and I tried to move away. He moved with me. I stepped to the left. He stepped to the left. I moved back. He moved forward.  
This got on my nerves. "What do you want?" I snapped with ice in my voice. He looked at me for a second and then shook his head.  
"What's up with you?" he asked.  
I narrowed my eyes, "Nothing? Why?"  
"You're acting weird."  
"Weird?"  
"Yeah."

Before someone else could say anything Brigid stepped into the hallway; walking up to us, her hand on Fang's shoulder. "Oh I'm sorry. Didn't mean to bother you," she smiled at Fang, then turned to me, "But Max, did you want the bed closest to the window?"  
I tried not to scream, "Sure. Or if you want it, I don't care."  
"Thanks, Good night Fang." she said walking back in.  
"Good night Brigid." he replied.

I felt sick and wanted to get away from everyone. "Move Fang." I said, realizing he was still standing in my way. He didn't. "Move Fang." I shoved him out of the way with a angry expression on my face. I didn't walk or run but practically flew down the stairs and out the door into the navy blue night.

The anger washed away when I hit the air, flying with a strong wind current, feeling as free as free could get. Closing my eyes I tucked my wings in a bit, free falling down to Earth for about a mile. The wind thrashing around my hair. Then pulled them out, caught the next air current, and coasted freely, my heart thumping in my chest loudly. What an adrenaline rush. Brigid was getting on my nerves.

And don't get me wrong, I'm not those weird jealousy types like how the Carter me was programed to be like from Mr. Chu's monkeys. And I'm not making any excuses either. It's just that sometimes when you get programed to do something, it doesn't go away in just two days of getting the old you back. The two days that felt like a month.

The moon was bright and full and I looked up to see a large bird fly over head. It's black wings outlined by the light. But birds don't talk. Or shout "Max! Max!"

I squinted to see Fang flying in a large circle to get closer to me. Great. "Land!" I shouted up at him. He nodded and I could make out the irritated expression on his face. We landed in a clearing, our feet thumping on the ground making too much noise, our wings scaring off animals thinking _What the heck are those thing?_

"Okay what's up?" I asked Fang, brushing off my jeans.  
"What's up? You ran off and set off the alarms making everyone wet the bed." he shouted.  
"So what. Dr. Martinez and Jeb know I do that. You know that, the flock knows, John, and Brigid."  
"Max."  
"What?"  
"Are you jealous of Brigid?"  
Nothing.  
"No I am not! You know what she's just throwing herself on you because she doesn't want people to think she's a traitor!" I blurted.  
He looked at me confused, "What the hell are you talking about Max?"

I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. "When we were in Hawaii and we destroyed Chu's little underwater playhouse I saw something. Birgid letting Mr. Chu and his triggor happy M-Geeks in to her room and she was smiling. And you know what, three weeks later, POOF! There goes my memory." Fang was quiet. More quiet than usually, I mean.  
"Are you sure?"  
"Yes. I remember it so clearly."  
"But are you sure? I mean she might not know who he was. And if she is bad then we need proof, not just a mutant bird girl who is getting her memory back."  
I groaned, "You're right. This--This--"  
"Sucks." we both said at the same time.  
"Everything sucks." he said putting his hand on my shoulder. Instantly I got a trillion new nerve endings on my shoulder. Then I narrowed my eyes.

"Oh don't think I'll go gaga and think this is all over Fang just because you put your hand on my shoulder." I warned.

* * *

When we got back in the house everyone was downstairs on the couches waiting for me. "Max." Dr. Martinez said.  
"Yeah?"

The flock snickered and grinned behind her and I gave them a dirty look and everyone backed off, except for Iggy. Gazzy and Nudge grabbing him by the arms and pulling him too.

"Honey, why'd you go charging off like that without telling anyone so they could disable the alarms. You almost gave me a heart attack." Somewhere in the back round I could hear someone say, "Maximum 'Charging Off' Ride."

Note to Self: 1. Find who keeps on doing that. 2. Especially Total.

"This is not a code red. Fluke, Booth out." Agent Booth said into his cellphone. There was a muffled voice, "Yes sir. Okay. Booth out."  
"Who was that?" Jeb asked coming from the kitchen.  
"Cheif of Security." Agent Booth replied and turned to me, "This is unacceptable Max."  
"Yes indeed. You should have told us or your mother." Agent Breenen cut in. I rolled my eyes.

"I won't do it again." which I might, "And I don't need a lecture. Okay?" I smiled.  
Dr. Martinez smiled back, seeing that I meant it.

"Okay back to bed everyone. We have an important meeting tomorrow."

Yeah. New York City. We're back.

* * *

**OK so what did you think? Comment! PM me if _you _have any suggestions on what will happen next! Favorite! Subscribe! =)**


	11. Chapter 11

**Heey so if i can get 5 comments then i'll post chapter 12 and 13 together and if i'm generous even 14. okay? And they'll come fast. oh and i know that faxness in chapter 10 was suckish but they im not tht good at the whole faxness thing lol. hahaha enjoy=) Oh and i know it took a long time to get this chapter on. Sorry my aunt was getting married and i never got a chance to do anything. haha**

* * *

Because of the "Eraser Incident" the flock had to ride in the black Hummer limo that came to pick us up from the landing strip a few miles away from our cabin with everyone else. A limo. Don't get me wrong, I was a little thrilled about riding in a limo but there's that darn claustrophobia issue.

The one given to us by the hot shot billionare who was interested in us. Just like every other billionare in the world. But supposedly he was safe. And I dont buy it.

"Wow!" Nudge whistled when we climbed inside. The inside was all colorful, with seats on one side that could spin around and a bar on the bar was loaded with drinks, and food. Lots of food. At the front was a plasma screen TV, a huge sound system, and a button that said "Disco". The windows were tinted from the outside so we could see out but nobody could see inside. The ceiling had mirrors on it that were cut and colored differently, making your face look weird and lights that dropped down. The floor was carpet except for a strip of glass that was lighting up wherever we stepped.

"Holly crap this amazing!" Haley breathed and laid back onto a seat and pulled out a Pepsi from the mini fridge next to her.  
"I want one," Ella glanced at Dr. Martinez who looked at her with an I-don't-think-so look. I sat down trying to relax but felt super twitchy. "Pass me some chicken wings." I told Nudge when my stomach growled.

"Okay guys we still need to remember where we're going," Dr. Martinez began, "This guy is very powerful and could help us with a lot of problems and help the CSM. So," she was looking at me, "We need to be on our best behavior and listen to what they say first before we do anything."

I looked at her and smirked, "Who _me?" _I looked surprised. Everyone laughed.  
"Yes you Max." John said. I shrugged and leaned back in my seat, taking a bite out of chicken wing.

"What does this do?" Of course the Gasman had to hit the _Disco _button. The limo went dim, a disco ball falling from the glass ceiling, lights flashing different colors, some of them blinking, disco music roaring, the floor blinking different colors. "Cool!" he crooned and he and Iggy high fived.

I didnt say anything. Hey let the kid have some fun. Hello we were in a limo after all.

Then Gazzy shouted and everyone was quiet. "Holly crap! There's an Xbox in here and a PS3!" he showed us the video games and smiled devilishly.  
"Don't even think about it Gazzy!" Angel snapped at him over the music. I laughed. He looked at her then at the games.  
"Fine!"

"Gosh. Our lives are so weird." Total said, hoping up next to me. I scratched his ears and he flipped onto his back so I could scratch his stomach.  
"Tell me about it."

We drove for about an hour until we reached New York City. I looked out the window as we passed Central Park. A flash of memory. I remembered when we slept in the trees, the police, Ari, and Angel with Celeste.

Ari.

My heart hurt as new memories of him flooded my brain. I looked at my feet trying to blink back tears.

"We're here." Jeb said.

We climbed out of the car and the whole flock looked at the building.  
"What the--" Nudge said.  
"This.. This.." Gazzy couldn't get the words out. I looked at Fang and he looked at me. Both of us speechless. My jaws clenched tight, and my hands curling into fists, my nails digging into my palms.

The building where this hot shot billionaire was working at was, "The Institute for Higher Living." I said my voice flat.

_You're correct Max. But it is not the Institute for Higher Living you remember._ the Voice chimed in.

* * *

We waited in a large, yes, conference room. How many times have we been in one this time? Can you tell me? A lot. And usually they don't go just peachy.

"Institute of Higher Living?" I hissed under my breath. The flock was all gathered together.  
"Do you think this guy bought it from Itex or something?" Iggy asked.  
"Maybe."  
"Do you think he could've bought Itex or something?" Nudge looked at me, "I mean it's possible. Itex isn't totally wiped out is it?"  
I rocked back on my heels thinking.  
"Jeb might know something about this." Fang said.  
"Yeah or maybe Dr. Martinez." Gazzy added.

The door opened and an old bald man walked in. "Mr. Atienza will be in momentarally. Please take your seats."

When we were all done a man wearing a black suit walked in holding a brief case. He looked Philapino, with tan skin and dark hair.

"Hello. I'm Mr. Atienza but you can call me Mark." he set his breif case on the large table, pulling out a lab top. He looked at the flock and smiled. "I wanted to talk to the miricle bird children myself along with your care takers about my company being involved with the CSM. I think this could help us with the on going expiraments being dumped into the ocean and help save the world." he said oh-so confidently. He looked at the flock directly, "Help you guys have a better life. Not like you have had for the past five or six years since you have escaped." He paused.

"Hold on for a second," I said, "What is your company."

He smiled. "Oh well my company was Atienza Science but we bought another company. Itex."

My eyes grew and my jaw dropped for a second. Oh no. Not Itex again.

* * *

**So whatcha think? This one was shorter so I could put like a base thing on. You know? Haha.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Hey. Ok chapter 12. yeah this chapter, well i'll explain in the end.**

* * *

I tried my best to not to jump out of my seat and on to this loon. He bought Itex? Did he even know what they did? To the world? To people? To us? They wanted to freaking wipe out half of the world's population for cyring out loud!

"I know what you're thinking." he cleared his throat.  
Yeah. You're either 1. a crazy person who is either dumb and doesn't know what Itex has been doing for years 2. Someone who wants to take this evil company and use it to save the world 3. Someone evil who wants to recreate Itex

Call me paranoid. I know.

"Yes. It's just Itex. You do know what they have been doing correct?" Jeb asked and I wondered if he used his whole "I can use the Voice" thing on me and read my thoughts.  
"Yes I do. And I think if we can use what Itex has found out with experiments and such will help the threats of global warming and against the children." Mark Atienza replied.  
Dr. Martinez spoke up, "Is there anything else?"

For an hour he spoke about more programs, taking us on tour to schools, and other BS.

Hey why don't you just go up to people and show them our wings and say, "They're freaks with wings. You can help save the world by stopping the pollution."

"The kids at schools could hear from Max about what will happen. And you know show the wings and stuff. Get donations from people. Put on more air shows maybe acrobats, show their unnatural strength for their ages and such." he went on.

"Air shows are definitely a big no, no." I commented.

Mark looked reluctant for a second, "We have found a certain solution to solve some problems for the children."

Everyone leaned in to listen.  
"We have found a way too help the children. We have found a way to take off their wings without hurting them. And we have found a way to erase painful memories and leave the rest of the situation to the adults. Find the rest of the children adoptive families but they'll be able to keep in touch. We could resolve issues without the children being in the picture. They wont be wanted experiments anymore. Itex could resurface and create a better world." he said with big headed pride.

I laughed. Taking away memory? Been down that road. Still trying to go back up it.

"I don't think so." I said, leaning back in my chair.  
"Pardon?"  
"You heard me. I don't think so."  
"But these opor--"  
"Lets see _Mark._ We've busted our butts for a year to stop everything, do what we did, and you want us to believe that you can just come and say 'I can take your wings away and erase your memories of this life and leave it to the adults'. And _**separate** us_? Take away **_wings_**? I don't think so. We're not some kids that were abused by our parents or something."

A hint of anger showed on his face, "Technically you are Itex property and we can do whatever we want to help you."

"Oh no. We are nobodies _**property**._Is that what you wanted? The experiments back? To resurface Itex so you could rule the world? Haha. No way." I said.

Mark looked at Dr. Martinez, Jeb, John, and Brigid. "You do understand? Valencia? The wings will take your daughter out of danger. The memories eraser would just take the bad things out."  
Dr. Martinez shook her head. "Well Mark. I don't think so either. You're just saying that you want to take the kid's lives away. Some of these bad times have been where the children have grown closer and more as people. It's like me taking away your money and leaving you to be a second class citizen." she smiled at us.

I smiled back. Don't I have the coolest mom or what?

"Yeah. And we're not Itex property. Buddy. We're people. And don't even try to take us away. You'll be sorry." Gazzy said standing up. I looked at him, shocked, then smiling. He had a serious expression on his face. The rest of the flock got up too and made the same face. They looked so cute to me. But I swear Mark started to sweat. He pulled at the collar of his shirt and cleared his throat.

"I'm sorry you don't see what i can give you. But you will still get my donation for the CSM." he sounded sure.

Then I got an uneasy feeling by the look on his face.

_Trust nobody. Not siding with him could lead to him going against us._I thought with panic washing over me. I gripped the table and took a deep breath. _Calm down Max. _I told myself.

Angel's little hand came and squeezed mine. "Don't worry Max." she whispered. I'll try not to.

"Well then," Mark said shuffling papers, "I think we're done here. Thank you for your time."

* * *

"Well I don't think he likes us much." Iggy said when he was gone.  
"Yeah. Supposedly he lost a lot of valuable property." Haley added sticking her tongue out laughing. Then her expression turned distressed. "Do you think--cause you know how we're Itex property-- that he knows where my friends are? That he could have them and not tell us."

Angel put her hand on Haley's shoulder and smiled, "I don't know. But don't worry. We'll find them." she said in her sweet well--angelic voice. Haley smiled at her, pushing some hair out of her face.  
"If he does and will do that to them-- well I hope he likes his organs on the inside of him."

We walked out of the Institute and I could stop myself from staring at it's golden sign that said the name on it. I looked up, scanning the whole building like I was trying to find something wrong with it or something. Maybe Erasers coming out of nowhere? Maybe Haley, Jeb, Dr. Martinez, Ella, John, Akila, and Brigid disappearing leaving the flock and I back in New York like nothing happened and nothing changed.

But that wasn't real.

My head throbbed suddenly and I squeezed my eyes shut to get another memory flashback. The flock in that damn restaurant where we were pretty much exposed. The flock at the Central Park Zoo out running that Eraser. Getting honey roasted peanuts. Me trying every cookie I could get my hands on. The flocks' makeover.

I felt Fang's hand on my shoulder. "You okay?"  
I opened my eyes and looked at him, "Yeah I guess."  
"Memory flashback again?"  
"Yup. But I'm okay, let's go."  
He looked a little hesitant but started walking.

"Where do you guys wanna go?" Dr. Martinez asked, "We have all day."  
"Oh could we go to the Statue of Liberty? Maybe that FAO Schwartz Toy Store! I really want to see that place." Nudge said looking around the streets.  
"Nooo! We gotta go to Nintendo World!" Gazzy pressed looking at me then to Dr. Martinez.  
Angel looked up at me, "We're still getting fish."

I put my hands up, "We'll do that," I bend down and look at Angel," Oh and I'm not sure about fish Ange."  
Her eyes widened like I was joking, "But I want fish." she whined like a regular little seven year old girl.  
"Angel." I warned.  
"Max I think we can get fish because--"  
"No Angel. We have Total, and pretty soon little Totals."  
"Maaaaxxxx."  
"Angel!"

"FAO Schwartz it is." Dr. Martinez cut us off. I looked at Angel and nodded.  
_No fish Angel. End of discussion. _I thought hard.  
Her eyes narrowed and she pouted.

I shook my head. "God. Angel." I said to Fang.  
"Well..."

* * *

**Hey haha well I decided to just put Chapter 12 up and you know post 13 and 14 instead. So remember 5 comments! Comment more if you want! Okay haha. Oh and Mark Atineza isn't going away so easily. ----Hint! Hint! Hint! hahaha**

* * *


	13. Chapter 13

**Heeeyyyy :) I know when u read this what u might think of him.. good? Bad? But the Mr. Atienza i know in real life is _AWSOME!_so yeah for all of u who might go to Nordonia Middle School and know who i'm talking about :) **

* * *

Mr. Chu looked over reports in his office when his phone rang. "Chu speaking."  
"Hello Sir. This is Captain 2." Captain 2's voice came from the other line.  
"Yes?" he asked.  
"Sir you have a someone here to speak with you. He says you were talking to him about a business deal. Should I let him in?"  
Mr. Chu thought for a second, "Ahhh. Yes. Let him in please." he smiled.  
"Yes sir. He will be right up." the line went dead.

He waited.

There was finally a knock on the door. The door creaked open and in walked Mark Atienza. "Welcome in Mark. What a pleasure to see you."  
Mark Atienza walked in calmly looking around at the big fancy office Mr. Chu sat in, looking similar to the Oval Office in the White House, except instead of an eagle in the middle was it said Chu Inc. He sat down on one of the chairs and looked.

"I wanted to talk to you about this new business deal..." Mark began.  
"Yes and it is still an offer."  
"I talked to the experiments, they are property of Itex thus my property. But the one called Maximum Ride is resisting and thinks other wise."  
"Yes Maximum Ride is known for that."  
"I have a plan... My Itex lab in in the Death Valley in California has recreated their lupine guard. Known as Erasers to most... I'll take your offer."  
"Ah you have chosen well." Mr. Chu and Mark Atienza shook hands.  
"As I was saying, I have a plan. I want to find Maximum Ride 2, so she can be our weapon for Maximum Ride's change of mind."

Mr. Chu leaned back in his chair, pulling a cigar out of his desk drawer and handing one to Mark. "Good. Good. This might work. And we have our agent to watch progress..." he took a large puff and smiled.

* * *

(Max POV)

FAO Schwartz can only be over all described with one word. Awesome. I mean if I wanted to actually explain in detail what I thought of that place then well it might take a while.

"Max come look! Look at this!" Angel gabbed my by my wrist and pulled me to a glass room. A tiny glass room. I couldn't help but getting twitchy. That's what happens when you'e lived in a little dog crate for the first five years of your life.

On the ground was a huge piano that played and would light up different colors when you stepped on. Gazzy and Iggy were working on some masterpiece, jumping from note to note.

"Dan dan dan dan!" Iggy shouted.  
"One two three!"

Dr. Martinez and Brigid stood laughing and clapping.  
"Free style!" Iggy shouted to Gazzy and they broke into dancing. I tried. Everyone in the room tried. But we couldn't stop laughing, smaking our knees, tears rolling down our faces. Even Fang couldn't breathe he was laughing so hard.

People began walking in to see what the whole commotion was about. There was a low rumbled of whispers when the spectators got a look at who were in the room and who were dancing on the piano.

"Oh look those are the bird kids!"

"Look the kids with the wings!"

"It the CSM avian Americans."

"Omygod it's Fang!" I couldn't help but roll my eyes at that one.

Doing a quick 360 of the room I scanned the crowd, looking for something out of the ordinary, something that screamed "I'm EVIL!" Because we did have a little battle with _Erasers_. My mind couldn't stop going back to the meeting with Mark Atienza. That annoying voice inside my head (no not Voice, but my voice) telling me something was wrong. As wrong as giving kids wings.

_Trust your instincts Max. _Voice chimed in just like it always does without warning.

_Jeez Voice, great advice. _I thought hoping it could see me rolling my eyes.

More and more people swarmed in to get a look at us. I began getting even more twitchy, the room filled with people, not enough room, and me unable to stand it. I could see it on the flock's face too, but they were trying to stay calm. I couldn't help but smirk. My flock knew what to do.

"Okay guys I think we should get out." I ordered. Gazzy and Iggy stopped, just noticing the fifty people trying to come in. Nudge gasped and looked around, her eyes shining.  
"Oh gosh! We're like celebrities," for a second there was excitement in her face but then it melted into a scowl, "Oh no."

Oh yeah. Definitely a No.

We pushed through the people, some of them grabbing at our backs, some of them grabbing for us in general.

"Max over here!" someone called.

"Oh my God! I touched their backs!"

More people tried. "Hey quit it. Stop." I tried smacking their hands away. They pulled at my hair, my clothes, and my body. Angel pushed and shoved.  
"Max! Fang!"

"I want to be part of the flock! Yeah!"

Again and again it happened and I tried my hardest not to snap the next hand that touched me in half.

"Hey! Stop thouching us or you'll get arrested okay!?" I shouted on the top of my lungs.

Everyone was quiet, looking at me with dumb struck faces. "Ummm. Bye."

Shoving the doors open the flock filled out onto the side walk, still being stared at. I rubbed my temples, breathing.

_Sometimes when you save the world you get more than just bruises. _Voice fortune cookied.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to scream and shout and just let everything spill out of what I was feeling.

But hello?

Is that me?

No.

That's still a part of freaking Carter that the Chuster had put inside my brain.

_It will take time to heal Max. Not everything goes away instantly. _Voice chimed again.

I gritted my teeth, looking up at the tall sky scrapers. My wings itched, wanting to snap out and just fly.

But these days when I do get to fly it usually ends up with...  
a) me being shot out of the sky  
b) us being attacked  
c) watched like freaks  
d) or we get like five seconds of it

When it was just the flock and me, we were in the sky, flying most of the time. But after all of this we are either on the ground, in the sky on a plane, or in a submarine.

* * *

"Do I smell honey roasted peanuts?!" Iggy sniffed the air. We were outside Central Park Zoo when Iggy and Gazzy went in a honey roasted peanut frenzy.  
"Calm down Ig." I said pulling a twenty out of my pocket. Gazzy and Iggy sighed. Grabbing for the money.

"Get me a bag." Total said coming up next to with John Abate. Because FAO Shwartz didn't allow dogs, even with wings, John had to wait in the car with him. Total sniffed around the ground, "Mmm. Fresh made too."

My stomach clenched and growled. The peanuts did smell really good. We walked up to the vendor.

"Umm.. fourteen bags." I said. The vendor nodded, her back turned to us.  
"Ok. That's nineteen---" she turned around and stopped. My jaw dropped, and her's did too. Our expressions confused.

There standing in front of me was Max 2.

"Max." she said.  
"Max." I repeated.

* * *

**So what did you think? Nice twist? Haha yeah i know. :) COMMENT! SUBSCRIBE! FAVORITE! let me know :D ~SM~**


	14. Chapter 14

**Hi :) ok chapter 14 is here! well Max 2!!! ahhh! haha and this is just one of many twists i'm gonna throw in through out the whole fanfic. so yeah just telling you know.**

* * *

I couldn't believe it. There standing in front of me was the original Max. Max 1. The Max I was sent out to destroy and replace. The Max that everyone wanted dead, who I've been trying to get away from. To start my new life. And now I'm selling freaking honey roasted peanuts to her? Can anyone say crazy twist of fate or someones doing?

I can....

She looked at me shocked, and I looked at her shocked. Trying so hard to mimic the look on her face. The flock was standing next to her looking at me then at her. Yeah we looked the same and were exactly the same.  
"I can't believe this..." she murrmerd looking out into the distance, probably to herself.

A woman with blond hair walked over, "Max--- oh my god.."

She looked at Max 1 then to me, her face twisted and confused.  
"Don't ask." Max 1 and I said at the same time, in the same edgy tone. For some reason this woman gave me bad signals, making my stomach churn and twist.

Dr. Martinez and Jeb Bacheldor walked over. Dr. Martienz had the same expression everyone else said but Jeb's face was calm.

"Hello Max 2.0" he said nodding his head. I narrowed my eyes, handing Max 1 the bags of peanuts.

"What are you doing here?"I hissed, doing a quick 360 of the perimter. Nothing out of the usual.

"What are we doing here? What are you?" Max 1 replied, pushing hair out of her face to revleal a red scar on her head.

"I'm living my new life."

"I'm living my usual messed up life."

"Aren't we both?"

"Hmm."

"Hmm."

"Enough chit chat? Did Atienza put this up? Chu? Is the Director trying to bring this back?" Max 1 did'nt hesitate with questions.

I pulled off my apron, pulling down the closed sign. "No. Our mom didn't do anything. And I don't know about these Atienza and Chu people you're talking about." The boilers closed with a loud _thud_! She didn't look like she baught it.

"That witch isn't my mom." She glanced at Dr. Martinez,"Or yours." Yeah I knew about Dr. Martinez. The avain genetic specialist who gave and egg for expiramentation. An ex-white coat.

"I know Dr. Martinez is our mom. I know that she gave your egg which was copied and made into me. But that doesn't change anything. That doesn't have to _do_ with anything." We stood across from each other. Our eyes locked and narrowed.

"But who is Atienza?" I asked.

Max 1 looked at the building that was the Institute for Higher Living. "Well _Max._ I'd think you would know. He is the new owner of Itex."

There was a huge lump in my throat.

* * *

When I told Max 2 about Mark Atineza, Mr. Chu, and the whole mess that had happened for the past few months she actually listened intently. Something that surprised me a lot for some reason. She was telling the truth.

How do I know?

Are you really asking me that question now?

I have a little mind reader. Angel.

_Keep your friends close. But your ememies closer... and sometimes those ememies can become your friends. _Voice said.

I laughed out a little and everyone looked like I was crazy. Which I sometimes ask myself. "Nothing."

Max 2 chuckled, "Is that Voice of yours driving you crazy Max?"  
I glared at her. "Is your Voice driving you crazy?"  
She shook her head, "I don't have one remember?"

No. I don't.

"Well atleast I need one because I'm just not some replacement who could be killed anytime your creators thought you weren't needed. Should I remind you of Germany?"  
Max 2 gritted her teeth, her hands balled into fists. Mine the same way.

Angel smirked and pressed herself between me and Max 2. "Well I think you should come with us. You could be help. I mean keep your friends close, your enemies closer, and sometimes those ememies can become your friends too... or like sister?" she looked up at me and smiled.

I gaped at her, trying to digest what she had just said. Did Angel have a Voice too? Or did Angel pick up on what it told me? Or is Angel the Voice?

_Angel I am not. _Voice said right on queu, like it was answering my question. Thank you Master Joda.

"Angel-- I don't think that's a good idea." I said.  
"Yeah. Umm I already--" Max 2 rambled too but we both were cut off by her.

"No Maxss," she tried to get the name out, "Anyway. Max 2 is going to come and stay with us."

Oh no. Angel from the submarine is back. The one that decided to become flock leader and never listen to what I have to say. That Angel.

"Angel.."

"No Max. Max is coming. Trust me."

I didn't say anthing.

She is freakishly physic. I mean who would make a prediction of Fang dying before me when we were in Africa...

* * *

**ok that last sentace is just a sneak peek of the new Maximum Ride book called Fang. it still needs to be released. But James Patterson did a whole interview on it. check out james patterson's website. www. jamespatterson. com and follow me on twitter www. twitter . com / simranm17 but no spaces... that's just the only way the link works thank you. and if you tell me that you got this from the fan fiction thing then i'll follow you on twitter also. **

**thanks **

**~sm~**

* * *


	15. Chapter 15

**sorry it has taken me sooooooo freaking long to get this chapter up. my computer got this really bad virus and it took forever to try to take off and then my computer died and we had a funeral for it and now i have a new computer. then fan fiction the document manager wasn't working so that screwed it up even more. BUT! its fixed now and updates will be coming more quickly :)**

**oh and in this chapter i used some other swear words other than hell- which isnt really a swear word- but yeah. and i know the flock has used those before haha :P**

* * *

"Angel," Max2 said with an edge in her voice, "No. I'm not going with _you." _

"Yeah Ange. I'm not gonna let this person stay with us." I agreed. _This person who took me and almost killed you guys. _I thought directing them exactly to her. She looked at me with her big blue eyes and shook her head.

"Max," she looked at me then at Max2, "Max. I'm not going to change my mind. We need Max2 here with us. I know it."

Max2 rolled her eyes the exact way I do (which I don't think I'll be able to get used to that), "I don't think so. I'm over this. Just go away and don't ruin my life more than you have." she looked at me this time and I felt a small pang of guilt. I sort of did ruin her life-- but that wasn't all me-- it was the freaking psychotic people at Itex.

"Oh trust me we won't ruin your life in any way. Hmm well not the way 'Mom' did." I smirked. Not as much as the Director of Itex ruined our lives.

Max2 rolled her eyes and leaned back against the cart and I could make out the thin silhouettes of her wings pulled tight against her back. I clenched my jaws realizing how annoying I could get.

But I guess that's just me… well… the new me… I mean old me…. the brainwashed me.

Dr. Martinez walked over looking at me, "Max I think we should---"She stopped abruptly when she saw Max2 looking at her then at me. John, Brigid, Jeb, and the FBI agents walked over following Dr. Martinez.

Alarm showed on everyone's faces and Dr. Martinez stepped between me and Max2. "Go Max." she said.

I don't think we meant to but the flock and Jeb all let out a small laugh, Max2 smirking at the others.

"Don't worry Mom. We know her." I spat looking from her to Max2. Jeb stepped forward, with a neutral expression on his face.

"Maximum…" he nodded his head. She sighed and crossed her arms over her chest not really caring to be nice or not.

"_Jeb._" She said looking at the ground in a lazy way then back up at her. He looked irritated and his eyes darted from me to Max2.

My eyebrows shot up. Hmmm… I'm not the only Max he has issues with.

_Hidden agenda, right Voice? _I chirped in my head, hoping it was Jeb/Voice right now not just Voice/Voice.

Jeb didn't look at me or give any hint that he was listening to what I thought.

Well that's bad for annoying purposes anyway. But it's good for him not reading my mind purposes.

"Okay we met and said Hi but let's go now." Fang said coming up next to me. This made me feel a little better.

It shocked me that he said that and I sent him a grateful look and quickly changed it back to neutral.

The flock and Haley came and stood next to me with the same expressions on their face. I wanted to laugh, picturing the brave faces they were probably trying to put on.

But hey! We're pretty good actors, so the others might not catch it.

Angel cleared her throat, "Max. Max. You're still coming with us. _Both_ of you."

_I can't believe it! _I practically screamed in my head. I glared at her.

"Angel! Didn't you just hear me?"

She looked up at me, "Yes. Yes I did."

"And?!"

"I respect your decision but I don't think so." Angel shook her head and smiled an innocent angelic smile.

Respect my what?

"What just happened?" I whispered to Fang.

He looked shock. Well as shocked as Fang can look, "I-I—Angel just said something…" he trailed off.

"Where did that come from?" Nudge mumbled to Iggy. He shrugged.

I tucked some hair behind my ear and cleared my throat.

"Angel. No. Final decision."

Max2 nodded, "Like I'd come with you anyways…"

"Well then. There's nothing to talk about then." I said.

"Well I guess not…" Max2 narrowed her eyes.

* * *

When Maximum Ride left I opened the stand back up so Joseph wouldn't fire me. This was my second job I've had and I don't really want to loose this one. I mean hello?! People need money to survive. But the thing about meeting Maximum Ride again was she acted and seemed pretty different.

I can' really put my wing---finger on it but it was like Maximum Ride forgot who she was.

But anyways. I'm glad they're gone. I don't need any mistake experiments anyway. And their "Flock" has gotten pretty big.

Jeb is still with her. Big shocker there.

But the thing that is really yanking at me is that woman that stepped between and Maximum Ride. So seamed so familiar, like-- I don't know. Something?

Today was unusually slow. What happened to all the people? I sighed sitting back in my chair. Probably some food fest or something.

_Grrawwrrrr._

My stomach clenched and growled.

The smell of honey roasted peanuts made me hungry.

"Excuse me?" A woman walked up followed by an older man. He looked like a super model and I couldn't help but stare at him for a quick second. But for some reason something in my gut screamed "GET THE HELL AWAY FROM THEM! RUN! RUN! RUN! RUN!"

I ignored it and turned my attention to the woman. "Yeah?" I asked.

"Can I get two bags of honey roasted peanuts?" she asked in a high pitched chipper voice.

I nodded and turned around to pull the bags out. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I could feel their eyes bore into my back. _Oh I hope they can't see my wings. Please. Please._ I thought, biting the inside of my cheek so hard I could taste a hint of blood.

"Here you go." I mumbled handing the bags to the costumer. She smiled and handed me a ten and walked away.

_Grrawwrrrr. _

I held my stomach and looked around. There weren't any people. Might as well take a break.

Closing up and locking the stand I walked down the street in Central Park. The tree branches made a roof over the paths. I wonder what It would be like to just relax on the branches?

I know Maximum Ride and her flock do.

I realized I was the only person walking near the Kwanzan cherry trees, which made my senses kick into high gear.

My heart began fast- faster than it usually beats- and I quicken my steps. Slowly it went to a jog. Then I was running down the pathway as fast as I could. I heard a soft _phshhshsip _sound. Instantly I felt something sharp get my in my neck.

My hands flew to my neck, ripping whatever was in there out. Not stopping, I looked to see a syringe with green goop half gone. My muscles felt tired but I kept on going. Pretty soon my eyelids felt heavy and my legs wouldn't work anymore.

The same man I had seen at the honey roasted peanuts stand came and stood in front of me, looking down with an edge in his stare. I knew it. I knew it!

Why couldn't I have listened? Why couldn't I have eaten peanuts instead? I mentally kicked myself a few times.

I could feel strong arms pick me up but I couldn't move or fight back.

Black.

* * *

Mr. Chu walked down the pure white hallways of the abandoned hospital, his shoes clanking loudly on the linolium floors. The second Maximum Ride, Max2, was in custody and down at the labratory.

Finally... Maybe this time he could get the correct answers. At the end of the hall Mark Atienza waited patinetly next to Captain 1.

"Hello Mark." he said walking with them.

"Hello Chu." Mark greeted him back.

"So we have Max2 in the labratory with us. She is being held in a cage for now and we have done some tests. She is definaltey Maximum Ride," Captain 2 started, " Including the attitude. I don't think we will need to go through the procudure we had to do on the origonal Maximum Ride but we might need some ways of getting her to do our bidding."

The large wooden doors swung open to show rows and rows of small cages on one side and labratory equiptment on the other. One of the cages ratted raggedly.

"Get me the hell out of here you son of a bitch!" she screamed. The whitecoat (a/n: yup our favorite mad scientists are back :D ) bent down and looked at Max2.

"I don't think so." he said smiling. A hand poked from the inside of the cage and grabbed him my the colar, pulling him to the cage quickly and chocked him. He gagged and chocked, trying to pull something out of his pocket.

He pulled out a small silver remote and pushed one of the buttons as fast as he could. The hand let go as a brain melting electircal shock went through Max2's hand and she pulled back.

Mr. Chu smiled to himself and proceeded down the hall.

He stopped in front of Maximum Ride 2's cage. Mark gasped the sight of her magnificent wings. She looked at them but didn't say anything. The whitecoat straightend up.

"Hello sir." he said.

Mr. Chu nodded and looked at Max2. "She is perfect. Lets start planing on how to use the clone."

* * *

**Oh yeah i knw i fixed a few things on this... if u already red this and are thinking "Why the hell did she delete and repost this chapter" (and if ur not idc) well the "Plan clone" thing was supposed to be "She is perfect. Lets start planing on how to use the clone."**

* * *


	16. Chapter 16

**Okay i'm really getting pissed my document manager! Three times! Three times it has errors and wont work!!!!!! god i'm so mad! gooosh!!!! ok... enough venting to u guys haha. Well here is chapter 16 :)**

**

* * *

**

"I'm not getting back in the limo." Gazzy said when we were about to leave.

"Me neither." Nudge said crossing her arms over her chest and stepping back. I was actually surprised that Nudge didn't want to ride in the limo anymore. But who could blame her? It was like putting us in a dog crate except this one had a disco ball and spinny chairs.

I sighed shaking my head and looking at Dr. Martinez, "They're right mom. I'm not going either."

"I don't think you should." Agent Booth cleared his throat.

I looked at him then back to my mom. You'd think after spending a few days with us he would get that Max + listening to adults = crazy

Well besides listening to my mom.

"Go ahead," she smiled looking at the flock, "We'll catch up."

I nodded and shrugged off the new jacket Ella bought me when she begged to go to some store called Gucci.

Note to self: Cut slits in jacket for wings.

"Here," I said handing the jacket to Ella, "Give it to me when we get to the safe house." She smiled, taking it.

"Sure."

I looked back at Dr. Martinez and Ella, smiling, and running forward. Throwing myself into the air and unfurling my wings, I felt an overwhelming sense of happiness and excitment. Angel was right behind me, laughing as Total clumsily tried to catch up. Nudge wizzed past, followed by the Gasman, Haley, then Iggy. I could feel the light brush of Fang's wing when he flew next to me.

I looked at him, not saying anything and closed my eyes feeling the warm sun on my face and wings. "Its been so long since we've actually gotten to _fly_." I turned to him, the wind thrashing my hair in my face.

His dark eyes met mine, "Yeah. More time on the ground." he said somewhat disgusted. I crinkled my nose like I smelled one of the Gasman's socks,

"Ugh. Limos. Fancy houses. Xbox, PS3s." I rolled my eyes.

"Well that's our life..." he trailed off.

* * *

My cage door swung open and I blinked warily, my vision blurred. It was probably 2:30 pm by my guess and already I had gone through tons of tests. First was skills. A huge equation on the board that I had less than an hour to figure out. Apartenly the whitecoats at Itex wanted to make me,and the other Avian experiments, to be super smart and have high IQs. The only one who was probably that smart was Iggy, part of Maximum Ride's flock.

But those idiots went and tried to fix his night vision too. But oops- they ended up making him blind. But you know that.

I failed that test and only have the knowledge of a regular fourteen year old, thanks to the Director of Itex who tutored me to be just like her. That bitch...

Next was the speed. For three hours straight I ran at a thirty miles per hour, a huge shock going through my body when ever I slowed down. I'm not sure about that one... But I think I passed.

After were strength and skills. Too much to go into detail...

"Come on out sweetie. Don't worry it's just some vitamins and some food." a woman bent down and smiled at me, holding a cup of pills and a foam tray of some type of mush in it.

I didn't move, narrowing my eyes and looking at her.

"Come on." she tried again. This time in an urging tone. She looked down the hall, when the large double doors swished open. The high squeak of wheels rolling down the linoleum filled the room. Probably another, newly made, experiment.

The whitecoatscowled at me and pushed the tray and cup into the cage and locking it. "Oh my God. Another one! Another one Johnson! Who knows how many more there could be besides these too and the originals Ter Brotch had made."

I ignored what the two whitecoats said, eating the mush. It tasted soo good.

There was a low moan from the cage next to me. I looked over to see a girl, maybe my age, or a year younger. Her face was smeared with dirt and blood, her green eyes showing almost no hope, and her brown hair matted with blood. I looked away not interested, leaning back, kicking the cup of vitamins out of the cage. Who knows what those pills could be. Some sort of drug? Some sort of enhancer pill that could mess me up forever?

I felt her eyes bore into the side of my head, "What?" I hissed looking at her. She quivered and shrunk back against the bars.

"Nothing."

I felt a sting of guilt at the way I snapped, "S-S-Sorry." I got the words out slowly.

She smiled and nodded her head. "It's okay." there was a moment of silence.

"I'm Mackenzie." she broke the silence.

"Max."

"Are you a new experiment?"

I shook my head, "No. I'm ancient. From old Itex time."

"Me too. Me and my friends, Emma, Haley, Nick, and Dino," she sighed looking at the cage floor sadly, " Nick and Dino are dead. But I'm not sure if Emma and Haley are still alive."

* * *

"Max look!" Total shouted, pointing a furry paw at a cloud resembling a dog with wings.

"Yeah! It's great!" I said over the roaring wind. We flew in a clumsy formation, making a bird kid sand which. I flapped my wings hard, moving around to find a strong air current, so I could coast. A cople of eagles flew near us. Probably thinking, darn, those are some ugly birds. I turned flying at a thirty degree angle, my arms out. I felt so alive.

Wings now tucked against my back, I began free falling fast, the sound of rushing air filling my ears, my hair flying up. I laughed, my eyes watering. Wings out, I grabbed an air current and coasted feeling a rush. Then it hit me.

My head throbbed rapidly and it felt like someone struck me an axe in the head. I healed my head, crying out, sucking in a breath. Was this it? Am I dying? Those questions raced through my head and I began falling. Images of Itex flashed across my eyelids like a movie. A lab appeared, with rowsand rows of dog crates, syringes, and chemicals. Two came into view and I saw myself and another girl talking. She was calling her Mackenzie. Max2. Max2 was there. They were back from testing and Mr. Chu and Mark Atienza walked in the doors with evil smiles on their faces. Mr. Chu spoke about using them and about finding another bird kid. Then it all stopped. Black for a quick second.

Gasping I breathed heavily, still holding my head.

"Max?! Max?!" I heard Fang in the distance.

"What's wrong with her?!" Nudge said.

"Max?!" I felt Iggy's fingers lightly against my neck.

There was a low groggy moan and I realized it was me. Oh God.

My eyes opened and I blinked rapidly to see the flock and Haley looking down at me. I looked around, seeing that we were in a small forest with the sign, _No Climbing on Trees _posted everywhere.

I balanced on the large tree branch, sitting up and looking at the flock.

"Max! Max! Ohmigod! Are you okay? I mean you were just flying and then _boom! _You just start falling and holding your head! Like what happened to you in New York! But that hasn't happened to you in a while.. so that's really strange... Hmm. But still! I thought you were about to die! But luckily Fang caught you!" Nudge rambled on and on, her arms wrapped tightly around my neck, choking me.

"Ahh. Nudge. I can't breathe."

She gave a small laugh and let go. "Sorry. I was just so scared."

I smiled at her, ruffling her hair, "It's okay Nudge."

Iggy came and sat on the branch above me, his feet barley missing my head. "So what happened Max?"

I shrugged, then realizing Iggy was blind and said, "I have no idea. I just saw pictures. Like when we were in New York and got those brain attacks from the microchip in my arm and--"

"Wait," Iggy cut me off, "What microchip?"

"Uhh nothing. As I was saying. I saw Max2. And another girl. Her name was I think Mackenzie. Was it? Yeah, yeah. Definitely Mackenzie."

"What! Mackenzie?" Haley cut in her voice in alarm and panicky. "Where is she? Mackenzie is my friend! Part of my flock." she swallowed a sob and leaned back against the tree trunk. "We gotta find her Max. She's my family."

I blinked. Surprised at the emotion that flooded through her. "Ummm..." I put my hand on her arm, "Don't worry. We'll find Mackenzie. And Emma."

My eyes widened.

"Emma?" Haley said the name slowly and confused. "She was there too?"

I shook my head, "No! It just... _Appeared in my head." _Like when I shouted Fang back many life times ago when I was "Carter Manson", girly, fluffy, cheerleader. Ughh.

Everyone looked at me like I was some crazy lunatic who had a voice in her head, and that got names just like that. Which I'm not. Well the crazy lunatic part.

"Well this is weird." Total commented and came over sitting down in my lap. I scratched his black ears, looking out in the distance and thinking.

"I think I know where that lab was." I finally said after long moments of silence.

"Meaning?" Angel asked.

I turned to everyone, "Guys we're on a rescue mission."

* * *

**Well there is chapter 16 haha. And i'm soo sorry it has taken soo long. Hopefully my computer won't crash again and again anymore. Haha. Yeah and I'm starting on chapter 17 right after I publish this chapter. Haha. ok :)**


	17. Part 2 : Chapter 17

**Hey :) okay part 2! yay! now i'll start adding more actiony things you could say... part one was more of like a whole base thing... yeah i hope you enjoy. there's new characters now, Emma and Mackenzie!! you guys know who you are! Star of Calamity and Twilighternerd1220! haha yeah :)**

**Oh and BTW the parts where Max2 and Max are speaking or telling whatever u wanna say are at different times. like when max2 talks its the night before the flock are about to set off and help Haley find her flock members. **

**Just wanted to clear that up for some of u who got confused :) **

**

* * *

**

"Are you sure?" Dr. Martinez asked me. I leaned against the door frame, a small worn out backpack slung over my shoulder.

"Yes."

John Abate and Brigid stood next to her with each with a different expression on their face.

"I think you should if you really want to..." John trailed off rubbing his tired eyes. Brigid on the other hand wasn't so happy about it. Her face was twisted in a mad scowl, both eyebrows raised, her eyes bugged as if she was about to wrap her hands around my neck and choke me to death.

"I don't think it's a good idea," her scowl melted into a warm smile that anyone would fall for. I didn't buy it.

_What is it Brigid? Mr. Chu want you to watch over us or something? _I thought to myself. "We're still going." I opened the screen door, ignoring the countless reasons she was listing of why it would be horrible.

The flock and Haley waited in the yard with Ella and Akila. Akila was getting pretty big already, bigger than her usual bigness. Total licked her face, both of their tails wagging. I had to admit it was pretty sweet. Yep. Maximum Ride, saving the world, kicks butt, and thinks dog love is sweet. That's me!

"Ready?!" Angel chirped sweetly. She looked up at me with innocent blue eyes. But those eyes weren't as innocent as they seemed.

"Yeah," I smiled down at her.

"So," Haley came over, "Do you know where they are?"

I looked over at Fang and he nodded, "Probably where you were held when we set you guys free back in New York. Under the green building. Maybe under Mark Atienza's new Itex building. or the institute."

_It's not in New York City Max. _Voice chimed in.

"What do you mean?" I asked the Voice out loud.

"What?" Haley sounded confused. I shook my head, ignoring her.

_What do you mean Voice? _I asked.

For once the Voice answered with almost complete answers. _Do you really think they would keep the Institute where it originally was Max? _

No they wouldn't. I pursed my lips together wondering... Where would Chu take them. Itex? Itex?

Then it hit me.

"Guess where we're going everyone?" I said clapping my hands together.

Everyone turned their attention to me, curious looks on their faces.

"We're going to California. Somewhere in Death Valley near Bad Water Basin," I paused, adding a little dramatic effect, "We're going to the School."

* * *

I was asleep in my cage when the sound of wheels woke me up. I peered around in the darkness on high alert, my night vision showing a quiet lab. Just a bunch of lab equiptment.

"What was that?!" Mackenzie whispered alarmed.

"I have no idea. Late night experimenting or something?" The doors swished open and white light filled the room. I squinted at the silouette of a cage and wings. The loud clanking of a whitecoats shoes echoed along with a whimper.

Mackenzie pressed herself against the cage bars like it was going to help her see who it was. The whitecoat stopped in front of her cage, bending down and peering at her. His eyes scanned her whole body from her wings to the scared look on her face when she pushed herself back.

"Hmmmm." he poked a finger through the cage and laughed. "Haha. I can't wait to disect that brain of yours birdy."

She narrowed her eyes and a mad scowl played across her lips. "I don't think so buddy."

His eyes widened an inch, "You talk?"

She nodded, "_Yeah. _Gold star for you for taking such a long time to figure that one out Wallace. It's Wallace right?" she read the name on the lab key around his neck, "Wallace Paul Gregory Taylor Chandler Warner III? Nice name..." she snorted a laugh.

I laughed too and the whitecoat looked at me with the expression for me to shut up. I just laughed even harder. Wallace's face turned a shade of pink and he cursed some not so nice names to us. "Bitches." he finally said when we didn't stop laughing.

There was a weak snicker from the cage behind him. I focused my attention to the face in the cage. It was a girl, about thirteen, with short blond hair going past her shoulders. Her wings were pressed tightly against her back but I could see a hint of brown and white. Her face was dirty, her left eye black, blood stains from her nose.

Probably from the new Erasers I saw one of the whitecoats trying to create when we were testing earlier today.

"Well,"Wallace cleared his throat and pushed the cage next to Mackenzie's cage, "Um. Bye." he said akwardly. Probably trying his hardest not to blow up.

I waved my hand, "Bye Wallace Pail Gregory Taylor Chandler III." He tried to ignore me but I could see his hands curling into fists by his side. That guy was probably made fun in school. That's why he turned to creating people into mutant freaks...

When he left it was quiet, besides the whimpers of the person in the cage next to us. There was a black plastic screen over

* * *

"Hey look!" the Gasman wailed pointing down at the ground. On the ground was a long train moving fast on the ground. That wasn't what cought his attention. It was the five wolf like things standing on the top of the train, holding two large automatic machine guns close to their bodies.

I focused closer, no. They weren't holding machine guns, their arms morphed into machine guns! And to make it even _more _horrible was the fact that instead of goofy, stapled on wings, like Ari and the other Erasers had, there were sleek perfect large black wings attached to their backs.

"Move!" I ordered, my brain kicking into high gear, adrenaline pouring into my veins. Erasers, the last time we encountered them, were well, Erasers! The ones we knew! Not some modified machine gun morphing Erasers that had perfect wings!

Heck! Deep inside of me I sort of wished for M-Geeks instead. At least you knew their weaknesses...

I didn't have anytime to think about that.

Bullets began coming form all directions at us and the Erasers lept off of the moving train and into the air, coming at us quickly and swiftly. I swooped down fast, moving around in loops and angles, trying to distract and confuse the Erasers as much as I could. Flying straight up I moved about seventy feet above an Eraser. Folding in my wings, I began to fall feet first. With a large _THUMP! _my feet crashed into the Eraser's head. He whined and snapped his jaws together angrily. I didn't give any reaction time and spun fast in the air, coming back and smacking it in the chest hard. One punch in the snout, in the eyes, and mouth. The Eraser yelped and I moved back, flying away from the bullets coming my way.

"Gazzy!" Nudge cried when an Eraser grabbed him by the sneakers, pulling him down. Before I could do anything an Eraser's wing brushed my wings and I swooped to the side. But that didn't help. The Eraser grabbed my wing, yanking it and I sucked in a breath, my eyes widening as much as they could. With so much strength I thought he was going to rip it off. I kicked back and down, struggling to get my wing free. His machine gun arm morphed back into a regular Eraser arm and wrapped around my neck.

I wheezed, holding onto it, trying to pull free. Gasping for air I turned my waist, pushing my head back, chomping hard down on the flesh. Eww. I shivered tasting dog hair and maybe, hopefully not a flea. The Eraser howled but didn't let go. I just bit down harder, then harder. His grip loosened enough for me to gulp in a breath and flap my wing, hitting him in the face.

Finally he let go. I began to fall fast catching myself on a wing current and surging upward, punching him in the jaw on my way up. The Eraser grabbed my leg, "Shit!" I cursed to myself, using my other foot and kicking free.

"Bombs away!" the Gasman and Iggy shouted, soaring above me, holding small balloons in their hands. I wonder where those came from? Without any other hesitation I flew upward, catching onto a strong wind current and flying above where Iggy dropped some bombs onto the Erasers.

Green goop exploded onto them and the Erasers cried out.

"Three... Two.." Gazzy counted. Then _KABOOM!!!!!!!!!!! _

They were Erasers chunks falling to the ground. I stuck out my tounge.

Fell bad for the people that fell on.

"Come on." I said and we began flying. Ohhh....

* * *

**Ok i am stumped. come on guys! i need some ideas! that would really help! thanks :)**


	18. Chapter 18

**Hey :) so i'm gonna try to shoot these chapters out as best as i can. And for all of u twi-hards! i am not stealing freaky things from twilight. there are such things as missle proff houses! I dont give a damn about those details in twilight. so what if bella got a missle proof car. not everyone is a twilight addict. and you knw who u are, that i'm talking to. anyway ENJOy :)**

**

* * *

**"Max, I'm hungry." Angel said after four hours of flying. Her face looked wary and hunger was all over. Flying did take a lot out of you. I scanned the ground, then looked at the sky. We had probably covered a couple of hundred miles with the speed we had traveled.

"Okay," I said when a small city came into focus a mile away, "Land there."

I flew in large circles while the flock landed, searching for Erasers. That was a problem we had to watch out for again. I landed running when I felt a peircing pain in my head. "Auhhh." I breathed, clutching my head and stopping. I sank to my knees, my head throbbing, squeezing my eyes shut hard, my heart beating faster than it did, swet running down my head. I breathed in hard, trying to calm myself down but the pain was too much. I felt like this time I was going to die. I'd never felt any other physical pain like this, not even when we at the School. I could feel myself being moved across the grass, and it was probably Fang moving me. I whimpered and felt something wash over me. Like water or wind.

But then it stopped.

I opened my eyes to see myself standing in front of the School. "What the hell?!" How did I get from somewhere in New York or Pennsylvania to Califronia.

Was this a dream?

My head throbbed again and it felt like I was moving fast again. Except this time I found myself standing in a pure white hallway, light with large flourescent lights hanging down from the ceiling. The smell of floor cleaner and atiseptic bringing back the few painful memories I had from the School. The loud clanking of heels echoed down the hallway and a whitecoat appeared.

I held my breath ready to run. The whitecoat looked straight ahead. Looked right at me. But at the same time she wasn't. Was I invisible?

"Hello?" I said moving closer. She didn't respond. I waved my hands in front of her face and she didn't respond. I tried touching her but my hand just went through her! This could work.

_Now... where would Haley's flock be. _I thought to myself. Hey. If I was sent her for some reason then why not look for them.

"Dr. Geller." a man walked up holding a clip board. The woman snapped out of her somewhat trance and looked at him.

"Yes?"

"Subjects 12, 17, and 21 are ready for their testing. And Mr. Chu wants test CX2 done on Subject 2's clone." the man said.

Subject 2's clone? CX2?

_Who has a clone that is still alive Max? _Voice said.

For once I wsa glad to hear the Voice.

_I have a clone. _I said. _Am I Subject 2 Voice. _

_Yes. _

_Wait a second. They have Max 2 also?_

_Yes Max they do._

What would they want to do with her?

"Okay come this way Dr. Seroine." Dr. Geller said.

I snapped out of my trance and began to follow her. We were on the third floor. Pretty soon the white hallway had rooms. In one room was a tank with a couple of girls that had fish tails. That were _mermaids_. Another room had a baby doing a complicated math equation. Every room we passed was something different. Something horrible. How did they get all of these expiraments done in such little time?

Or were they doing this before?

Finally we stopped in front of two double doors. Dr. Geller punched in six numbers in the keypad. 0-7-1-7-6.

Need that for later.

The doors swung open to a room lined with cages and lab equiptment. Whitecoats were already in there, looking into microscopes and showing data on boards and boards.

"I don't think so!" a farmilar voice screamed. My voice. A hand shot out of one of the cages, grabbing a syringe from a whitecoat. The hand them stabbed it into the whitecoats arm. It was 2. Another whitecoat came and shocked her with a large electrical arm.

My head began throbbing and the same overwhemling pain came over my body. I sank to my knees, my head throbbing, squeezing my eyes shut hard, my heart beating faster than it did, swet running down my head. I breathed in hard, trying to calm myself down but the pain was too much. I felt like this time I was going to die. It felt as if I was moving, except I wasn't at the same time. Like the whole world was. Again the pain stopped.

I jolted up, breathing hard, looking around. It was night. You know what? I was really getting tired of me passing out and then waking up again and again.

"Max?"

I looked to see Fang sitting next to me. Worry was written all over his face.

"Fang." I said his name with relief. I leaned back against the tree that materialized behind me.

"What happened to you?"

I shook my head thinking back, "I don't know a vision. Something. But I was at the School and went to the room where Haley's flock members where. And Max2 is there and---"

"Max calm down. You sound like Nudge." Fang put his hand on my shoulder. I breathed.

"Okay," I looked up at the stars, "I think it was just directions. To tell me where to go when we got there."

He nodded, leaning back. "Thought something bad might have happened to you."

I looked at him, "Well. Nothing did happen."

He looked at me and our eyes locked. I couldn't look away. I didn't want to look away. Fang. Fang cared so much about me. Fang, my right wing man. Best friend since the beginning of time. I-I loved him.

He leaned closer and our lips met. It felt like fireworks. I could read all of the teen magazine head lines.

_Fireworks in those kisses, is that love? _

_Best friend=Boyfriend. _

I felt like I could stay like that forever. Suddenly I felt light headed and rememberd to breathe. There. The fog sort of cleared up.

Finally I let go. We just looked at each other.

"Fang?"

"Yeah?"

I don't know why but all of a sudden I felt so helpless. "Do you think I'll ever be the same? I mean will I ever get all of my memory back?"

He was silent.

"The-the thing is- ugh- I mean. There are so many holes in my memory. I can't remember so much. And I remember so little. Like how did we get Total? When did we-umm-kiss? Just-God." I sighed, punching the ground.

"Everything will get better Max," said Fang, "You'll get your memories back. And everything will be normal. Well our bird kid kind of normal."

How do you know? I wanted to ask. But I didn't, giving him a thankful look. I looked at the flock and Haley, who were sleeping soundly up in the trees. Then I remembered.

"Wait! Did they get food?! How long have I been out?"

"Don't worry. We did. And maybe an hour." he said reassuringly.

"God. What would I do without you Fang." I laughed.

He smiled one of his world spinning smiles, "I don't know."

* * *

**Like I asked. Any ideas for what happens next? I would appreciate some suggestions. haha :) **


	19. Chapter 19

**Okay so here is chapter 19 everyone! Oh the city name I made up is fake. BTW... Yeah so everyone knows that Max2 is sorta the bad version of Max. So in this chapter I tried to like, bring that out of her. Haha. Yeah so hope you enjoy!**

**

* * *

**

"Come on," I said when everyone was up the next morning, "We'll go into town. Hit the closest fast food restaurant and then hit the sky."

Everyone was up pretty much by ten in the morning and we were probably somewhere in New Jersey.

"Nearest town is about a mile up the road." Fang calculated.

I nodded. "Okay. We could probably walk right. I mean we could get spotted in the skies by Erasers or M-Geeks." If there are any of them left.

"One problem," Iggy pointed out, "No money."

Crap. "What about yesterday how did you get food?" I shook my head looking at the flock.

"Who said we ever bought it?" Angel chimed in sweetly. My eyes brows shot up and I looked from her to Fang.

"Umm. Okay--" I began but the Gasman cut me off.

"Um yeah we do."

"What do you mean?" But then I saw it. From inside of a hole in the tree trunk, the Gasman began pulling out a bunch of twenties. Kept on pulling out twenties!

"Oh my GOD!" Nudge squealed, "We're ri-ri-ch. We're ri-ri-ch." she did a little dance.

I picked up a hand full of money, smiling and looking over at Fang, "How much do you think this is?"

"Five hundred dollars? Maybe even more?" he guessed.

* * *

Five tries. It took five tries for the whitecoats to try to inject me with some green gooey stuff before they gave up. The first few tires? I just pretty much smacked it out of their hands or would grab something and get it away from me. The fifth time was when I got annoyed. So I just grabbed the syringe and stabbed the whitecoat in the arm.

Bad idea.

In return I got a million electrical shocks from this stick with a teaser on the end of it.

Some guy named Mr. Chu came in and talked to me alone. Telling me things about helping him destroy the original Maximum Ride. How him, and the new owner of Itex, Mark Atinenza,wanted to get rid of her and pursuit go back to dumping sewage into the oceans. I just told them to take a hike. No way was I going into the whole assassination of Maximum Ride thing again.

But apparently they weren't so happy about it.

* * *

"Oh God." I breathed in the smell of hamburgers and fires. We walked into Betty's Fast Food in the small little town of Terry.

Total had to stay outside due to the whole no pets allowed inside thing. And he wasn't to happy about it. Angel was outside by the door waiting and I kept a close eye on her, no need to relive that Hell.

Well as much Hell as I remember.

God...

My stomach growled and clenched, feeling like it was digesting it's self. Not good. The last real meal I had was probably two days ago. Bad idea if I wanted to fly for so much. We filled into the line, trying to act as normal as possible. Gazzy ordered first.

"Can I have two double cheeseburgers, three apple pies, two chocolate shakes, four large fries, a chiken sandwhich, and ten piece chiken nuggets." he smiled at the cashier.

"My, can you eat all of that?" she asked.

"Yes ma'am." he replied sweetly, shifting from one foot to another impatiently.

Next was Fang. Four double cheeseburgers, two apple pies, a vanilla shake, two chocolate shakes, four fries, and twenty chicken nuggets. Iggy ordered pretty much the same thing except he had six fries.

"Umm let me see," Haley mumbled looking up at the menu, "Three chicken sandwiches, two large fries, an apple pie, twenty chicken nuggets, two strawberry shakes, and a muffin." She looked at Nudge and nodded.

I studied her. Well I sorta trusted her. I mean she did help us with Erasers and stuff. But sometimes people you think you can trust (ex. Jeb) turn out to be, horrible scum bag, and it makes it a little harder to let go...

My turn. Angel sent me thoughts of what she wanted, including Total, and I said them outloud anlong with my orders.

"Umm I'll have two fish sandwiches, three cheeseburgers, a large drink, a strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla shake, three apple pies, seven fries, twenty chicken nuggets, and a cinnamon twister." I said and looking at her and she nodded.

The cashier laughed, "Feeding a crowd."

"Yep." I said with a smile. Well actually two bird kids.

It took about a million years for us to get our food and I walked out the door that led outside to the tables, where the rest of the flock waited.

Total hopped up onto a chair, his tail wagging ferociously, and I set down a hamburger in front of him.

For the next twenty five minutes the only thing you could hear was the munching of food and slurping of shakes. We probably sounded like starving orphan freaks. Heck most of were starving orphan freaks!

_You aren't freaks Max. You are a work of art. _

This time I wasn't sure if it was the Voice or it was Jeb tapping into the Voice in the weird way he does.

I ignored it and just kept on eating. All around there were families sitting together eating and laughing, people talking into their Blackberries, or teenagers hanging out. Everything seemed pretty normal.

But for some reason I had an overwhelming sense of being watched, not just the casual look, but like someones eyes boring into the side of my head. I looked over at Fang, seeing him tensed too. Acting _tres_ casual I got up and dumped my garbage, doing a quick 360 of the area.

For some reason this whole set up seemed really familiar. Like I had been in this kind of situation before...

"We should go," I casually said coming back to the table, "Don't wanna miss the movie."

"Yeah! I can't wait to see it!" Angel chirped happily.

"I hope it's good." Fang commented. We all talked about how the movie would be, acting as normal as we could. But the tenseness and jitters wouldn't go away.

* * *

You know that cage they brought in the other day? Apparently her name is Emma and she is Mackenzie's friend. Part of her flock. Apparently their other flock member is with Maximum Ride. How do I know? Because Emma has this ability to give people visions. She was aiming for Haley, the other flock member, and hit Maximum Ride. Who, instead of getting the vision, came to the School in something called a vision quest.

Weird isn't it?

Yeah I thought so.

You know what is even more weird and messed up? Apparently Itex started to do experiments before we came here. They've been doing it for a year and a half already. In one room I saw mermaid like girls in a large fish tank. Except these girls didn't look like the ones you saw in the_ Little Mermaid. _These girls had tropical fish tails, from shark tails, eel tails, and the mermaid tails you see on TV. They have webbed hands, huge eyes, and large gills on their necks and arms.

Nothing fairytale about that.

Also they actually modified the Erasers from the mess ups before. They look like the Erasers we all know and love, except they have perfect, non awkward stapled on wings, their arms can _morph into machine guns_, and instead of making Erasers in test tubes, they steal little boys and _girls_ off of the streets!

Where were these scientists when we needed them a couple of years ago?

And now those whitecoats wanted to experiment on us! Mackenzie, Emma, and me! The Chuster ordered his minions to modify me. Make me me stronger, faster, and trying to make my wings bigger.

I don't think so. I didn't want to end up like on of the screwed up experiments they had in the dog crates downstairs on level two.

* * *

_( Five days Later)_

"Hello West Virginia!" Nudge shouted to the people on the ground. She spread her arms out, extending her wings to the fullest she could and got onto a super fast wind current. Zipping past everyone she did a back flip in the air followed by a show of summer salts, twists, and turns.

We'd gotten out of Pennsylvania, and a part of Maryland pretty quickly, faster than I had expected.

But we'd been spotted flying over a football stadium ( stupid mistake) and everyone began cheering out our names, taking tons of pictures of the Gasman, Nudge, Haley, and Angel doing tricks in the air. What they were most excited about was the dog with wings, Total. I didn't like the whole idea. I mean, we could get spotted by Erasers or the Chuster's minions! But I guess with the whole 'saving the world' thing gave us a minimum celebrity status.

But nothing like paparazzi following us around. More like people screaming when they saw six, now seven bird kids in the air, and a bird dog too.

"Is this how it always is when you guys fly?" Haley asked coming over and flying closer. I looked down at the ground thousands of feet bellow us. I don't know. I don't remember. But before I could say anything Angel came close.

"No. I guess it's a new thing after our air shows." she said.

I gave her a thankful look and nodded like totally knew that.

"Woo!!!!" the Gasman's yell echoed from above and I looked up to see him cannonballing through a cloud and falling close to the stadium before he snapped out his wings and soared over the stadium. The crowd went nuts. He surged upward, his clothes and hair all wet from the cloud.

"Not too close Gazzers!" I called out. He looked at me, smiling, then nodded.

Total flew awkwardly towards me, his wings flapping hard and fast to go faster and reach me. "Wow. This is so cool Max. Do you think we could head a little east and hit the beach? Or stop and hit the board walk? The yearly sand castle competition is up right now. Now that's what I call art!"

I chuckled looking at his furry face. "Ermmm. Sorry Total. I don't think we can. Maybe when we go to California? I mean they should have those there right? We already have covered a good amount of miles and we can't waste those."

He sighed and nodded studying his paws a little too much , "Yeah you're right," he paused, "I wonder how my sweet Akila is doing." he changed the subject. I turned to the side, so I was close enough to Total without my wing smacking him on the upstroke.

"I bet she's doing great." I smiled.

"I wonder... Hmmm... Well she's with Dr. Martinez so she is doing well. And John and Ella are there too. You know how much Ella loves puppies. Remember at the pet store?" We both laughed remembering when we passed the pet store in New York and Ella drove Dr. Martinez crazy, begging for another dog.

"Yeah. She is definitely in good hands."

It was silent, not the awkward silent but the good silent. Total lost in thought and I relaxed a little bit, just feeling the rush of flying up so high.

"Guys! Come on!" Fang said to Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel.

"Okay!" the flock yelled back.

"But let's do a grand finally!" Iggy called up. They all circled each other in the air, holding each others hands, tucking in their wings and creating a star. They began falling and the crowd cheered and clapped, gasping as they saw them getting closer and closer. Finally they let go, Nudge and Iggy snapping out their wings and breaking away doing a back flip. The Gasman and Angel dropped a little more and then snapped out their wings, flying up in zig zags.

The crowd went balistic. "Flock! Flock! Angel! Angel! Nudge! Nudge! Gas-man! Gas-man! Iggy! Iggy!" They cheered their names as we got farther and farther away from the opening of the stadium roof.

"Next time, no air shows please!" I told the flock when they reached us. They nodded.

"That was great though." the Gasman laughed.

"Yeah!" Iggy agreed. Angel and Nudge nodded ther heads rapidly.

"Awsome!" Nudge punched the air beaming. It was pretty aswome.

* * *

**Well chapter 18 for you! Comment!**** Comment! Comment! Subscribe! Favorite! :)**


	20. Chapter 20

**Okay chapter 20 is here. my computer is stupid and keeps on getting viruses! i hate it. i swear my computer wants to die. So yeah just wanted to tell you :P

* * *

**

"How much longer do we have?" Nudge complained. I looked at her and at the map we had picked up in Louisville, Kentucky a few hours ago.

"Ummm Nudge?" I said, "Sorry to burst your bubble but we're in Illinois. And we need to get to California. Get what I'm saying?" She groaned, her shoulders drooping.

"Ohh," she paused, "Can't we, like, hop on a plane and get to California?"

"Umm do you seriously wanna go on a plane?" Angel asked coming closer to Nudge. Nudge shrugged, pushing hair out of her dark face.

"No. Never mind I asked. I'm just pretty tired. I think that's whats getting to me. Because I mean flying is something I would do waaaay more than going on a stuffy little plane. But it kinda fun going on a plane when we went that one time. Well yeah..." Nudge went on and on. Okay Nudge.

"Oh, I'm so itchy." the Gasman said starching his arms and legs rapidly. I flew closer to the Gasman.

"Come here." I murmured and pulled part of his shirt up. Our wings kept brushing each other and I could see some leaves stuck in between some of the feathers. On his little body were red splotches and he itched them again and again. Ohhh.

"Uh you have poison ivy." I slowly said.

"What?!!!" His eyes widened and he scratched himself on his stomach.

"Yeah. And I think there are some poison ivy leaves stuck in between your feathers too." I added. He craned his neck over to see the brown and red leaves stuck between his secondaries.

"Well this is just perfect," he threw his arms up in the air, "Ohh itchy." he scratched his neck and I could see more red splotches on his neck.

"Ohh sorry Gazzy." I ruffled his blond hair. Tilting forward I began going straight down for a second, until I turned around moving upwards so I could reach Fang and Iggy. They hovered in the air, their wings moving in sync and brushing each other. Fang had a questioned look on his face while Iggy looked down, playing around with a loose thread on his shirt.

"The Gasman has poison ivy so we need to stop again to get him some relief." I shouted up to them. Then to the others I pointed down on the ground to land. They nodded and flew in large circles dropping altitude.

* * *

My breath came in short gasps, my heart beating fast. The whitecoats had heavily sedated me and injected something into my arm. It was suppose to make me go faster and quicker over obstacles than the other avian hybrids.

They did that earlier to Mackenzie and Emma, who didn't get the injection, to compare to my results. I was in some huge set or something that was modeled to look exactly like a jungle. To figure how fast I could go they let loose a couple of Erasers and put a electrical net over the top so I couldn't fly away. To make it even more worse they put some kind of cuffs on my wings so I couldn't use those. So I would be more human like.

Not fun at all. The "jungle" that we were in was pretty authentic including real trees, mud, quicksand, a real river, heat, rain, and rocks of ever shape and form.

I ran bare foot through a puddle, tripping over a tree root. Every twig and rock on the ground stabbed into my feet? That I could handle easily. The burns I got if I went to slow? Easy as pie. The stomach clenching and the overwhelming nausea because I was so hungry? Not so much.

My mouth felt dry and my body felt really weak. I glanced over my shoulder looking around for Erasers. I pushed through fallen branches, some occasionally smacking my face. There was a clearing up ahead and I skidded to a halt. It was the shore of the river. I could hear Erasers moving quickly through, some of them snarling orders to the others.

"Take the west side, I take the east!"

"You head on!"

"But don't hurt her so much! Mr. Chu will get mad!"

Don't hurt me so much? How about you dogs just don't touch me at all. But if they did get to me I was ready to rip some faces. I stepped into the ice cold water, moving up onto a large boulder. Green moss covered most of it, making it hard for me to balance. Slowly I moved back, jumping from the rock onto the next. Then to the next rock. Stepping back I jumped to the next, my foot slipping and making me crash hard down into the water.

I sucked in a breath, landing on my side onto a sharp rock. Slowly I staggered up but the water was deep and the water current was too strong. It carried off of my feet down to wherever. .

"Agh! Agh!" I choked as I swallowed water, kicking my legs to keep myself up. My teeth chattered rapidly, my whole body shaking under water. On the shore I could make out the Erasers watching and laughing. I kept myself up, trying hard to swim to the shore or catch a rock or branch.

Everything began to go fuzzy and my body began feeling numb. "Ahhh. Help." I said faintly. My lungs were burning from lack of oxygen. My eyes drooped. Then I wasn't moving anymore. I had drifted to the shore. Right? My body shook rapidly and I could feel big harry arms pick me up. They were really warn, which I was glad of. I swear there were probably iccicles on my feathers the water was so cold.

"Get her into a heated blanket and get fluids into her immediatly!" I could make out the words of a whitecoat giving the Erasers and other whitecoats orders.

* * *

"That feels _so_ good." the Gasman sighed when I splattered a whole bunch of aloe poision ivy ointment I had gotten from a drug store onto his arms and chest. Nudge grabbed another bottle, putting it on the space between where his wings met his shoulders and squriting some onto his feathers. Angel was rubbing some on his legs.

"Luckily he didn't get any leaves in his pants." Iggy commented, snickering. Gazzy gave him a look and shook his head.

"I'm rolling my eyes Iggy." he said when I was done. He picked up one the empty bottles on the ground and chucked it at Iggy. It hit Iggy in the side of the head.

"Hey!" Iggy rubbed his head. "Hey!" he shouted again when two more bottles pelted him. We all watched and laughed as Iggy chased the Gasman around, on his heels and not hitting anything in his way. And this kid is blind?

"Alright," I clapped my hands together to get everyone's attention, "Come on guys we need to get going." I looked over at Nudge and the Gasman. "And no more rest stops."

They looked at me and smiled innocently.

"Okay." Nudge smiled.


	21. Chapter 21

OKay Chapter 21. Yeah I know, chapter 20 was pretty short. But 21 i guess you could say will be normal in length or maybe even longer. Here is something for u..

*****92 percent American teens would die if Abecrombie and Fitch told them it uncool to breathe. Copy this into your profile if you would be in the 8 percent laughing their asses off at the others*** =P Thanks to TulipBook for that ;)**

**Oh and by the way IDK if there is really a UFO museum in MO :) **

* * *

Finally we were in the air after the Gasman's poison ivy problem.

There were red splotches on his face now. It might have something to do with the Gasman playing a prank on Angel and her slapping him on the face then with a leaf she picked up off of the ground. Quinky dink? I don't think so. There is Angel for you. Don't mess with her or you'll pay.

We were probably flying at a cool eighty miles per hour due to the strong winds and currents at thirteen thousand feet. I looked over at the rest of the flock who were eating their McDonald's food in the air. I looked over at the Gasman, who itched his face a little bit, stuffed a bunch of fries in his mouth, then scratched it again. The cool wind probably felt good on his wings and on his face.

Instinctively I scanned the ground for any dangers. Nothing was so much out of the ordinary. Kids going or ditching school, grown ups going to and from work, people shopping their butts out at the outlet mall, and people stuck in the rush hour. 2 out of 4 of the things listed were how my life was a couple of weeks ago. Can you guess which? Yeah, I thought so -_-

* * *

_The whitecoats had heavily sedated me and injected something into my arm. It was suppose to make me go faster and quicker over obstacles than the other avian hybrids. _

_They did that earlier to Mackenzie and Emma, who didn't get the injection, to compare to my results. I was in some huge set or something that was modeled to look exactly like a jungle. To figure how fast I could go they let loose a couple of Erasers and put a electrical net over the top so I couldn't fly away. To make it even more worse they put some kind of cuffs on my wings so I couldn't use those. So I would be more human like._

_Everything began to go fuzzy and my body began feeling numb. "Ahhh. Help." I said faintly. My lungs were burning from lack of oxygen. My eyes drooped. Then I wasn't moving anymore. I had drifted to the shore. Right? My body shook rapidly and I could feel big harry arms pick me up. They were really warn, which I was glad of. I swear there were probably icicles on my feathers the water was so cold._

_"Get her into a heated blanket and get fluids into her immediately!" I could make out the words of a whitecoat giving the Erasers and other whitecoats orders. _

That was the only thing I remembered from the other day. That and feeling like I was about to die.

The whitecoats had moved me into something that looked like a regular hospital room, including the TV hanging from the ceiling. But I doubt I was going to be able to catch up on my of my _Bones _episodes on that one.

There was a knock on the door ( yeah _wow_you learned how to knock ) and it opened with a loud creak. I could make out the sound of short heels on the linoleum floor. The curtain moved out of the way and a woman with short brown hair and brown eyes walked up to my bed. I gasped, moving away from her. But there was little places to move to on a small twin sized bed.

She smiled. There standing in front of me was Marian Janssen, the ex-Director of Itex.

* * *

You'd think when we reached Missouri that it would be a joy to be closer to the School. Don't get me wrong, it is a good thing. But Hello? We're going to the School. It might as well been like shipping our selves to Mr. Chu and be like, "Hi, Mr. Chu. Uh yeah we just wanted to save you the trouble of going around and trying to catch us n' stuff. So we're just coming to the School and to you ourselves to save you all the trouble."

"Hey look! It's--wait. Never mind. No look! A UFO! A real one!" the Gasman pointed down. We all looked down at the ground where the Gasman was pointing to see a huge UFO spinning in what looked like the air.

"That's a fake UFO for the UFO Museum." Total gruffed rolling his eyes.

"Oh do you think we could--" the Gasman stared but stopped when he saw the look on my face.

"Umm never mind!" he chuckled.

"Look at that line!" Nudge gasped when taking a closer look. Outside the museum was a long line stretching down the street.

"Probably a new exhibit opening or something." Fang said to me. I shrugged.

"Maybe. Or they found out that Itex whitecoats are actually aliens from another planet and that's their ship." I casually said.

We both looked down and laughed.

"It's a new exhibit," Angel looked from the ground and back up to us, "Wow. Those people are so excited. Something about finding a ship and alien parts other than Roswell or something." she shrugged.

"Wow." Nudge and the Gasman breathed.

"I wanna go!" Iggy said with little excitement. Then his neutral expression turned into a curious one, "Wait. Do you think the aliens will know how to fix my eyes?" We all erupted in laughter as Iggy fake zapped his eyes with a fake laser he made with his hand. The Gasman made the sound effects of buzzing and of aliens talking.

"Gosh," I breathed wiping away tears that were streaming down my face, "Stop! Please!" I asked Iggy and the Gasman through bellows of laughter.

"Come on Max. Can we please go?" Haley asked through laughing. I felt around in my backpack and pulled out the wad of money we had. $400. We had enough for maybe one little stop.

_Let them have fun Max. _Voice chimed in my head. That time I seriously think it was Jeb.

"Fine," I sighed, "But! We land over there then walk."

"OKAY MAX!" Nudge shouted and began rocketing towards the ground followed by Angel,Total, Iggy, Angel, and Haley. I flew in a wide circle, moving my body so that I was pointing down and then began falling fast. The ground came closer and closer till I unfurled my wings, being pulled up a little bit, and landing perfectly.

* * *

This can't be happening! This cannot be happening! Those thoughts raced through my brain again and again. Marian Janssen?! The last time I had ever talked to her was back in Germany when she was going to retire me, Max, and all of the other clones in cold blood. That is also when it finally hit me that she was no good.

"Oh Max. It's so nice to see you." she said with a smile.

"Really?!" I asked with fake enthusiasm, "Because I'm not." She shook her head laughing.

"Just like me when I was young. Always the sarcastic one." I rolled my eyes.

"I'm nothing like you. I thought I was and I was proud of it too. But not anymore," I snarled, "Not after you just decided to kill me." She looked hurt but I couldn't see it in her eyes. Of course she was asking. She wasn't able to feel.

"Well Max. Or do you have another name?" she went on, casually pouring herself a cup of coffee from the pitcher sitting on the table next to me. How was that there?

"I kept it Max." I said flatly, messing around with the tape that kept the IV in my arm.

"Of course you did Max."

"So," I said out of curiosity, "What are you doing here? I thought after Germany you were gone. Done. Living the rest of your life in the light." Marian shook her head while taking a sip of her coffee.

"No, Max. I am still going to do what I have been doing for years now. Just because the other Maximum Ride stopped the by half plan doesn't mean that I won't try something different. Now that we have Mr. Chu and Mark Atienza as leaders, I think things will go better."

"Not if I have anything to do with it. I'll lock you away for good myself if I have to." I hissed. No, not again. This won't happen again. I needed to warn the other experiments. I needed to warn Mackenzie and Emma, and Max and her flock.

"No Max. You or the other Max won't stop me. You both won't save the world." she sounded confident.

* * *

God! How long is this line?! I thought impenitently. How long does it take for people to buy a ticket and walk through a museum exhibit and out?

"We're almost there, just wait." Angel said to everyone, mainly looking at me. I smiled at her on the outside, yelling at myself to stay calm and be patient on the inside. Angel wrapped her tiny little fingers around my hand and held it tight so we wouldn't get lost in the swarms of people. Fang was next to me, Iggy behind him, and the others in front.

"Anyone look like Erasers?" Fang whispered in my ear. I scanned the area, looking at people who might scream evil Eraser.

"No." I shook my head.

Finally it was our turn and I walked up to the manager at the front desk of the museum. "How may I help you?" he asked in a low, kinda snobby, voice. I pulled out some twenties.

"Seven people for the museum." I said. The manager looked at all of us like he was trying to find something wrong with us.

"Ehhm. No dogs." he pointed to Total.

"He's not our pet. He helps me," Iggy pointed to himself walking up and feeling around, " I'm sorta blind." The manager looked from Iggy to Total then to me.

"He needs a leash." he pointed out. Angel walked up next to me, standing on her tip toes to look at the manager.

"He doesn't need one. He's a good boy. You'll let us go now." she said. The manager had a blank look on his face and nodded.

"Yes," he pulled out eight orange bands and handed them to me, "Here you go. Enjoy."

"Thanks!" Angel said sweetly and we got out of the line.

"Good call Ange." I said tying the band around her wrist and handing everyone else theirs.

* * *

"Okay which way first?" I asked when we walked to the actual entrance to the museum. The walls were all a metallic silver with black and white pictures and newspaper articles framed all over. There were huge Lego models of space ships, some from movies and some that were dedicated people's creations. We stood in front of three hallways leading to different exhibits.

"Oh! Oh!" Gazzy pointed to the sign that said _Possible Alien Technology_ jumping up and down. "This one!" I shrugged and we walked through the dark hallway filled with tiny white and green glow in the dark stars. Haley pointed up at a patch of stars.

"Look there's the big dipper and there's the little dipper." she said. We all turned and looked at her.

"How do you know that?" Nudge asked.

Haley bit down on her lower lip, "Well I went to school for a little while. With an adoptive family that turned out to be whitecoats." The rest of the flock rolled their eyes and grunted. What? Did we ever live with some adoptive family and go to school?

Pretty soon the hallway let out to a giant room filled with people. "Well. I think I saw this at the School somewhere." I said to Fang. In a glass box was something that looked like a video projector and a CAT scan machine had a baby.

"I think they used that before on us." He shrugged then nodded. We walked around for a couple of minutes until we went to the next exhibit.

"Alien abduction,"Angel read out loud, "Sounds weird." The Gasman shook his head.

"Sounds cool." he shouted. Everyone in the room turned to look at us. We ignored them and kept on walking.

* * *

"Who knew so many people say that they've been abducted by freaking aliens." Iggy said when we got out of the museum.

"Yeah. And in the _Aliens at the movies_ exhibit I thought we had walked into a _Star Wars_ convention." Fang raked his hand through his dark hair. I agreed.

Gazzy looked at the three of us like we were freaking crazy, "Seriously? I though that was awesome!" Well who knew the Gasman was so into that stuff? I didn't.

"Okay guys we gotta go now." I said.

"Why so soon?" a deep voice came from behind. I spun around on my heels to see three Erasers, in human form wearing black suits, standing behind us. How did they find us so quickly?!

"Run!" I screamed with little time to react to anything. A large hand came forward to grab at me and I moved out of the way, scooping up Total and running down the street behind Fang and the others. I glanced over my shoulder to see the Erasers on our heels. There wasn't any room for us to snap out my wings and fly.

We all skidded to a halt when five more Erasers came at us from one side. Then five more. Five more.

We were completely surrounded by them! We all stood in a circle, ready to fight.

People began to gather around wondering what was going on but some of the Erasers shooed them away. It was silent except for the rustling of trees in the wind. It felt the whole world had stopped and we were the only people there. There was a low rumble coming from the distance.

It came closer.

Closer.

Closer.

I looked up, shielding my eyes to see three large choppers exactly above us. There were three large nets too.

I looked over at the flock, my eyes meeting Fang's. He nodded. _Angel. Tell everyone to on my signal jump, run, and fly away. It doesn't matter if we split up. Just go._ I thought hard.

_Okay Max. _I heard her thoughts.

_I'll take Total. _

I looked over at Angel who nodded over to Fang.

_Fang's thoughts. _She cleared. I didn't say anything and blinked once to show that I understood. My brain kicked into high gear and my heart was beating so fast it felt like it was going to rip out of my chest.

3....2...1...

"Now!" I shouted. I ran forward throwing Total in the air, who's wings began beating fast, and he flew. The rest of the flock sprang into action, trying to get away. The Erasers snarled and lunged towards me. I put my arms up to block a punch. Quickly they began to morph and look more Eraser like.

A large Eraser lunged at me and I fell to the side just in time to dodge it. Scrambling to my feet I jumped into and round house kicking the Eraser in his head. Running forward I unfurled my wings and jumped up into the air. A big furry hand grabbed my ankles. He swung me and _Crash! _I landed hard onto the cement sidewalk, the wind being knocked right out of my lungs(and air sacks). I could taste the bitterness of blood in my mouth. My nose killed and began gushing out blood. "Ohh." I whined and tried getting up.

A large boot crashed down onto my back and I fell back down, gasping for air and pain as my wings were being crushed. I looked around as best as I could and gasped in horror to see Nudge and Iggy in the same way I was. Angel and the Gasman were unconscious in two Erasers arms. I tried my hardest to get up but the weight of the boot and the crash into the side walk made it harder. _Angel! Angel! Can you hear me?!!! _I thought hard.

"Gazzy." I said faintly. His face was smeared with the blood spilling out of his nose. Tears welled up in my eyes and I looked at Nudge who looked at me, crying.

"Down!" the Eraser snarled and kicked by head. I bit down on my lip from crying out. Where were Fang and Haley? Had they gotten away? The Eraser took his foot off of my back and turned me onto my back. Just the weight of my body making my wings hurt. Slowly I stretched them out as best I could. Two black dots fell out of the sky. I could make out Fang and Haley.

No. No. No.

One of the Erasers snapped out it's wings and jumped into the air, catching them.

Where the hell were the police? The FBI? Navy? I thought they were helping to protect us?! Another reason you can't really trust anyone.

Moments later Fang fell right next to me. There was blood all over his shirt and his shoulder had a huge gash. Had they shot him? Haley was thrown next to him. He looked at me and I looked back feeling helpless. Weak.

The Erasers laughed like maniacs, slapping their knees. "Guess where we're going guys?"

I didn't want the answer.

"We're going to the School!" he crooned.

* * *

**Chapter 21 was i think the longest one. So yeah. And thanks for the ideas and editing :) people u know who u are :)**


	22. Chapter 22

**Okay chapter 22 is here. hope everyone had a fun thanksgiving break :)**

**

* * *

**

One of the Erasers threw Total right next to me, almost getting me and Fang in the face. There was the zoom of an engine and a blue semi truck pulled up fifty feet away from us. I groaned and turned my head. The Erasers snarled and whined moving things around inside the semi trailer. One by one the Erasers slapped a long piece of duck tape onto our mouths.

My body felt sore and weak and my wings hurt like hell. Luckily my nose had stopped gushing blood but it still throbbed and ached. The Gasman had come around a little bit but Angel still was on the ground limp and motionless. Two Erasers blocked the way between us as if on purpose. As if they got a kick out of me trying so hard to get to Angel. They _did_ get a kick out of it.

"Okay we have everything ready. Get them inside the truck as fast as you can. Go!" an Eraser barked at the others. On command they shuffled around. An Eraser came over, picking me up. His breath reeked Eraser, sewage, and some other stuff. I held my breath until he reached the opening of the semi trailer. He didn't even set me down. He just threw me in there. I winced as my body landed hard onto the cool metal flooring. Next they threw in Nudge, who landed right on my wings. Next was Fang, then Iggy, the Gasman, Angel, Haley, and finally they threw in Total who landed on top of Fang.

The Erasers chuckled and closed the semi trailer with a loud _psshhhthud! _It was pretty much dark in the trailer, except for the traces of light coming from somewhere. But my night vision helped and I could see the rest of the flock. They had tied our hands and feet together and I wiggled around trying to get loose.

"Total." I murmured as best I could through the duck tape. His ears pricked up and he looked at me. Luckily they hadn't tied or put duck tape around his mouth. I motion with my had for him to come closer. He lightly jumped over Fang and Nudge, sitting right in front of me. I turned my head and nodded for him to get me out of the rope.

"Gotcha." he whispered. He jumped over me, going behind and trying hard to chew off the ropes. "Almost got it," he mumbled through chewing. He tugged hard at it and the rope snapped, sagging around my hands. I squirmed around getting the rope off of my hands and untying my feet. I ripped the duck tape off of my mouth, gasping at the pain. Note to self: DON'T DO THAT!

Total had worked his way around untying Fang's ropes and Nudge's ropes, working on Iggy.

"Report." I said sounding congested.

"I'm okay." Nudge said sounding perfectly fine.

"I feel like pudding." Iggy said trying as best as he could to stand up.

"I can survive." Gazzy called out. Haley got up and nodded.

"MY wing," Fang said sitting up, "I got shot." He said trying to move and flex it. I scrambled up, moving over to Fang and looking at his left wing. Blood coated his feathers and shirt. I pushed away some feathers. I examined the wound and couldn't see any bullet hole.

"It didn't go in. Only grazed your wing." I finally said. He turned to look and I could see the quick spark of pain in his eyes before it disappeared and became neutral like always. The truck began moving and I was jolted forward falling onto my face.

"Son of a--" I quickly got up. The rest of the flock was up except for Angel. I tried my best to stand up, my legs feeling like rubber, and walked over to where Angel was passed out. I sank to my knees turning her over. Her face looked awful. Large blue and yellow bruises covered her faces. She had a black eye and a split lip. I brushed some blond curls out of her face and picked her up, holding her.

"Angel," I said shaking her a little bit, "Angel. Come on wake up." Nothing.

"Angel? Can you hear me?"Haley scooted over and tried. I checked for a pulse just in case of the worse. Relief flooded through me when I could feel her pulse.

"Angel. Come on." I said again. She didn't even more or stir. Nothing.

* * *

I sorta wished I was still in that hospital room other than this cage the whitecoats put me back in the next day.

"Max? Are you okay?!" Mackenzie pressed herself against the bars, holding on. I looked over at her and nodded.

"Yeah. Facing death defining experiments is sorta my thing these past few days. Are you guys?" I looked over from her to Emma, who had large bruises all over her face. Mackenzie had scrapes and cuts and a black eye. I leaned back against the back bars holding my head. "Do you think they'd give us the day off today?"

Mackenzie chuckled, "I really doubt it... but who know." she shrugged. Emma nodded. I shook my head. Figures. The large automatic doors of the room swung open and let in blinding light. The whitecoats have a thing for leaving this room dark and then turning on blinding lights. Jerks. The whitecoats walked into the room, wheeling in a cart. The whitecoats stopped at my cage and opened my cage, putting in a tray of food. A whitecoat looked into the cage as I pulled the tray closer to me. My stomach hurt so bad from hunger and I felt like I was going to throw up.

"Whatcha looking at?" I hissed not taking a bite of food. Half of me wanted to grab that tray and just eat it and the other half wanted it to smash it in his face. The whitecoat didn't say anything just kept on watching. I glanced over and looked at the whitecoat standing behind him. Of course it was gonna be Marian Jannsen. She looked at me and smiled again but I just gave her the death stare. From the corner of my eye I could see Mackenzie looking from Marian to me, her eyes bugged, whispering something to Emma.

"Next cages Hover," Marian said and pushed the cart over to Mackenzie's cage, giving her the tray and then moving to Emma's cage.

"Some explaining?!" Mackenzie asked me when the whitecoats left.

"She looks exactly like you! Is she your mom!? I'm confused." Emma rambled on. I sighed and rubbed my temples, trying to calm down.

"Well you see, that monster created me. She is not my mom. She just made it so I look like her. I have a mom, but I'm a clone of a girl named Maximum Ride and I was sent out to destroy her and take her place." I went quickly. They looked at me with blank expressions.

For the next hour I explained everything that went on from when I was made and to everything from taking Maximum Ride's place and the show down in Germany.

"Wow." Mackenzie finally said looking at me then to Emma. .

"My life. My messed up life." I nodded and shrugged.

* * *

From my guess we probably had driven forty eight long and stiff hours. My shoulders felt super stiff and my wings seriously needed to be stretched out. "Ohhh. My wings kill." Nudge complained, stretching out her wings in the small amount of space. Yes. Six defiantly claustrophobic kids in a little semi truck trailer. No good. Talk about being super twitchy. I leaned back against the cool wall, feeling dizzy from lack of food and water.

The semi truck stopped abruptly, making me fly forward and smacking into Fang. "Ouch." he grumbled and I slowly got off. I could hear Erasers jumping out of the front and walking to the back. The door of the trailer swished up and I squinted into the light. Where were we? The Erasers looked from us to each other, clearly mad.

"Where are your ropes and tape?" an Eraser asked and pulled me out of the trailer, throwing me onto the ground. I didn't say anything. "Well?" the Eraser kicked the side of my head and I bit down hard on my lip from the pain and I taste fresh blood. The Eraser looked at me then walked back to the trailer, pulling out Iggy and Gazzy, throwing them next to me.

"Ahh." there was a high pitched whine and I realized it was Angel. My heart swelled and joy filled me when I saw her face. The Eraser threw her out of the trailer. Quickly I got to my feet, catching her before she fell hard onto the floor. We were in the middle of nowhere. Only some dirt and brush. We were parked on a square of cement. Oh no. A helipad.

"Max." Angel said my name and hugged me tight. I sat down and put her down next to me. One of the Erasers snarled and kicked me in the side. It didn't hurt as much as it would have. At least she was okay and she was breathing. I ignored the pain and sat up.

My throat felt really dry and my lips were cracked and bleeding. I didn't even have enough spit to swallow or lick my cracked lips. The Erasers grabbed us and again tying our hands and feet with rope, and this time thicker. For some reason they didn't put a piece of duck tape on our mouths. But I am totally fine with that.

A couple of minutes later I could hear the hum of a chopper coming our way.

Dirt and rocks flew everywhere from the draft of the rudders and my eyes watered from some going in my eyes. Finally it landed and the Erasers had loaded us onto the chopper. I watched as we got into the air and began flying towards the hell. Or it other words the School.

* * *

**COMMENT! FAVORITE! SUBSCRIBE! and plz tell me if i need to fix some things. but no harsh words... thanks :)**


	23. Chapter 23

**Kay Chapter 23 :) **

**

* * *

**

Somewhere during our helicopter ride I had fallen asleep. The whole flock had fallen asleep. A couple of hours later we were woken up by the shout of Erasers.

"Wake up!" an Eraser growled and kicked at my legs. My eyes flew open and I looked around dazed. Where was I? Erasers? What were they--

Then the details slowly came back... Erasers beat the snot out of us and now we were going--no,_ at_ the School. _Right._ I groaned, cupping my hands over my nose. Fang stirred next to me and I turned to him.

"Are you okay? I mean besides the wing?" I whispered to him, pushing him to the side to check out his wing. He nodded and stretched. We were alone in the helicopter but I could hear the quiet ticking of a surveillance camera, so we couldn't really run for it without Erasers waiting for us on the other side.

"I think my arm is broken," Nudge sat up wiping drool off of her chin, "Ohh yep. It's broken." I turned over, sitting on my knees to look over at the rest of the flock. Thank God Angel was still conscious and she looked over and smiled sweetly making my heart break. She acted so brave and so hopeful. Iggy and the Gasman were coming around, their faces mostly bruised. Total was okay, thankfully the Erasers didn't care as much about him as looked like she was going to puke.

"Ouch," she cursed trying to sit up straight, "Couple of broken ribs."

Haley.

Was she a part of the flock?

No.

Did I kinda care about her?

Kinda.

Did I trust her?

Maybe.

Did she help us and I was thankful?

Yes.

But that didn't mean she could be a brainwashed traitor. I still kept a close eye on her and Angel would probably pick something up. But I didn't rely on Angel as much as I wanted. Angel couldn't just be the mind reading tool.

A couple of Erasers hopped up into the helicopter, grabbing us and pulling us out onto the hard cement. "Get into the cage." one said and nudged me into the dog crate in front of me. I wanted to run and fly away as fast as I could. But the School had gotten a major makeover since we had last seen it. Now the sky wasn't open. Instead was a huge cage going over the school that could open for the helicopters and planes. I could make out the blue wires running along the bars.

I forced myself into the cage, feeling super twitchy and claustrophobic when he shut the door.

Everyone was in and an Eraser loaded us up onto a huge cart, wheeling us across the lawn/parking lot- whatever. The huge gray double doors swung open and I felt like I was walking into a memory. I might as well have been--I could have been. The smell of floor cleaner and antiseptic burned my nose and I felt a little light headed. I tried not to look at all the whitecoats who stopped and were just staring at us. Like we weren't freaks but something really valuable like gold or an oil rig.

"Look at the wings..." some whispered.

"I think that's subject 2 and 4..."

"The wings are perfect..."

"Do you think they'll let us dissect them? I would love brain samples."

No! You're not getting anywhere close to my brain.

We were wheeled into another hallway that didn't have any freak- of- nature whitecoats walking the halls. There wasn't anything except the fluorescent lights hanging from the ceiling and the pure white walls that were so white it hurt my eyes. This hallway surprisingly looked familiar-- had I seen it before? Yes. In that vision thing I had where I saw Max2. We were heading to the place where Max2 was.

Finally I could see the big double doors and the Eraser about to punch in he code 7-1-7-6. Remembered that from before.

There was a _swishhhh _sound and the doors opened and we went into a room filled with dog crates after dog crates on one side then lab equipment on the other side. It was dark in there and my eyes adjusted quickly.

We wheeled down past the empty dog crates. There was a section where three dog crates sat alone. There were black screens over the sides so I couldn't see what or who was inside. The cart stopped gently and my crate was lifted up and put again gently onto the ground.

Sheeesh. What happened to these Erasers? When did they become such gentle giants? Usually it was throwing the crates on purpose.

Fang's crate was put on one side, then Haley's on the other side of mine. Iggy, Gazzy, and Nudge's crates where on the right of Haley's and Angel and Total's where on the left of Fang's. This made all the crates into a huge square.

Without another word some of the Erasers marched out of the room, a couple of them staying behind and watching as an Eraser pulled the black screens off of the crates in front us. He left right after, leaving a small light on.

Oh _very_ kind...

There directly in front of me sat Max 2.0.

* * *

The Erasers had caught Maximum Ride and her flock already? Talk about a failed rescue mission. I honestly was pretty shocked.

"What the hell?!" Mackenzie and Emma murmured looking from me to Max again and again.

"God. Clones?!" Emma whispered.

They both let out a small whimpers when they saw a girl with short dirty blond hair in the cage next to Max.

"Haley!!" Mackenzie shouted pressing against the bars.

"Haley! Oh my God! Haley!" Emma screamed through sobs. Tears ran down Haley's face and she pressed herself against the bars, sticking her arm through the bars and trying to touch their hands. Haley was their other surviving flock member.

"Emma! Mackenzie! God. I thought you guys were dead. I can't believe it. You're alive." Haley said putting her hand on her heart and pulling her arm back through the bars. Max looked at Emma and Mackenzie who couldn't stop looking at her. Their eyes scanned over the dog, Total, who had little black wings tucked against his back. Then to Fang, their eyes not leaving him and then to Iggy.

"Hi." Angel smiled at them, waving.

"H-hi." Emma smiled back waving her hand.

"Hi." Mackenzie said laughing.

It was quiet for a second. I wanted to tell her about Marian Jannsen so bad. But I debated about telling in front of the younger kids.

"Max. I have to tell you something." I took a deep breath.

* * *

Haley was soo happy about seeing her flock members that they cried and cried.

There was an akward silence for a second before Max2 spoke up.

"Max. I have to tell you something." she took a deep breath. I looked over from Mackenzie and Emma to her.

"What?" there was a tone of warning in my voice and I looked from her to the surveillance camera in the far corner. Emma saw me looking at it.

"Don't worry. Got those down a long time ago." she said and I nodded slowly.

"Oh."

Before anyone else could say anything the click of the lock on the double doors beeped and turned green. Slowly the doors opened and I could see the silhouette of a woman wearing heels, a coat (probably a lab coat), and a pant suit. Her hair was fell to her shoulders. The sound of her heels clanking on the linoleum floor echoed.

I looked over at Max2 and Mackenzie and Emma. Max2 looked down at her feet, shaking her head, and I could see her tensing up. Something was defiantly wrong. Emma and Mackenzie shrank back against the cage wall, looking from the whitecoat to Max2 to me. Like there was something important.

I looked over at the rest of the flock, and Haley, who had curious looks on their faces, craning their necks to see who it was.

The whitecoat stepped in front of my cage. I looked up at who it was. I swear I thought I was dreaming--in a total nightmare. So many questions raced through my head.

_WHAT THE HELL!?!?!?!?!?_

_What was she doing here? _

_I thought she left a long time ago!!!_

Standing there was Marian Jannsen. The ex-Director of Itex. The woman who said she was my mother and was the one who actually cloned all of the Maxs, Fangs, Iggys, Gazzys, Angels, and Nudges. Thankfully not so much Totals.

"Hello Maximum Ride. Do you remember me?" she asked sweetly, bending down to look at me eye to eye.

"Yes unfortunately I do." I spat, giving her the most hateful stare I could. Just the sight of her made me queezy.

* * *

When I heard the door unlock, open, and the sillouhete of Marian I couldn't help but just look at my feet. How did she do this? Was she watching from another camera? Emma had done something to mess up the singal on the camera and the microphone so they couldn't hear anything we said.

And also how did she "just happen" to walk in when I was about to tell Max about her.

She walked in and stopped at Max's cage. I couldn't help but try to mimick her reaction. Still couldn't get used to the thing about me being her clone.

I looked over at the members of her flock. On each of their faces was a look of shock, anger, and confusion.

"Hello Maximum Ride. Do you remember me?" she asked sweetly, bending down to look at her eye to eye.

"Yes unfourtunatley I do." she spat giving her a hateful look. Was that some kind of mock? I mean she probably knews that Max had gotten her memory erased. Maybe she did that herself.


	24. Chapter 24

**Sorry it took a couple of days to update. School. you know**

**Good flock song- _Me Against the World_ by Simple Plan **

**

* * *

**"I know this is very odd Max. I bet you're so confused but you'll get it all pretty soon." she said pulling up a chair and sitting in front of my cage. She leaned closer looking at me with a warm smile probably expecting me to break into sobs and ask her for the meaning of life.

It made my skin crawl.

_Yes this is very odd. But I don't think I will ever get you. _

I didn't say anything, rocking back on my heels, and giving her a bored look. Marian laughed and shook her head. I could see a flash of annoyance in her eyes but it quickly disappeared.

She got up out of the chair and pushed it aside.

"Max. Come on talk to me. I want you to think of me as a mother figure. Valencia just donated her egg. I took care of you, watched her development closely. Watched you in the School when you were just a little girl. _I _let Jeb take you." she pressed.

"Ha," I chuckled, "You're no mom. You're just some crazy lady who keeps telling herself that. Valencia is my mother, she takes care of me and thinks about me. Okay? So just give it a rest." I crouched in the cage to look up at her.

"Max," she sounded a little angry, "I won't take this. Whatever you say you can say it. I think of you as my child." she stomped down the rows of cages and walked out the door.

It was silent for a while until.

"Man, doesn't she have a bee up her butt or what?" Iggy broke the silence. Everyone started to laugh.

I pressed my face against the cool metal of my dog crate and closed my eyes.

_There is some truth in that Max. _Voice chimed inside my head. I got the impression that this was definatley Jeb speaking.

_Just shut up. _I barked in my head feeling frustrated.

_Think about it. _Voice said.

I didn't want to think about. I just wanted to go somewhere dark and sit there, hoping everything would just go away. That the flock and I were back in Colarado in what felt like a million life times ago. I just wanted to go back to the normal freak I was before I had this mission to save the world.

_You know you don't mean that Max. _

I gritted my teeth opening my eyes then taking a deep breath.

_Do I Voice? Do I really? _

No. I didn't mean it. Sometimes I did. But this was what I was meant to do. Even if I liked it or not.

_At a girl Max. _Voice said.

I looked over that the flock, Iggy and the Gasman were doing impressions of people. Nudge looked like she couldn't breath she was laughing so hard. Total was on his back laughing and Angel had tears streaming down her face. Fang was laughing too. Even Max2 couldn't stop.

Fang saw me looking at him and turned to me. There was a curious look in his eyes and I shook my head smiling at the Gasman and Iggy. He nodded and looked at me for a split second, turning his attention back to the Gasman and Iggy.

I looked at his wing, which had blood crusted all over it. The stupid whitecoats had taken a look at it from far away but didn't do anything to fix it.

Figures.

* * *

" Sir." everyone greeted Mr. Chu and Mark Atineza as they walked into the laboratory.

Captain 1 had arranged a new course to be built for Subject 2 and the others to be tested on. He stood silently as Mr. Chu and Mark walked down the corridor to where everyone waited. Mr. Chu and Mark Atienza had come back from Paris where they were on business. Captain 1 did not know what they did but he did know it had something to do with Subject 2.

Subject 2 was their main priorities. Sometimes even an obsession.

The previous Captain 1 had come up with the idea of erasing Subject 2's memory to finally get rid of her. It had worked, but only for a little while. There was only one little fault and that was that she was getting her memory back little by little and that her flock had found her. Also the two scientists who were supposed to watch her failed and let her get away.

Mr. Chu did not like failure. He didn't tolerate it. He didn't even like hearing about it.

Captain 1 remember when he was promoted from Captain 2 to Captain 1. The old Captain 1 and the two scientists were fired.

That was the day the scientists from Mark Atienza's Itex company had created the first batch of successful Erasers since the old Itex had retired them. They needed to be trained to fight and kill people, experiments, and animals. He could still hear their screams when the Erasers had ripped them apart and Mr. Chu made him watch as a warning. Their faces played again and again in his mind.

"Sirs." Captain 1 saluted the two when they approached him.

Mr. Chu nodded expressionless, "Captain 1."

Mark Atienza nodded.

"So what are we looked at Captain 1?" Mr. Chu walked up and to the window that over looked the whole course down bellow.

Captain 1 cleared his throat, "We have made this to be like the Arctic Tundra. Sub zero temperatures. We will be giving the subjects only a coat, their clothes now are suitable."

Mr. Chu rubbed his chin, "Yes. And what will this show?"

"We want to see what temperatures they can take. If the avian DNA does anything to their bodies. Also we are going to test Subject 2's clone also. She was injected with the Prox serum when we were testing her in the jungle course. Now that we have the original Subject 2 it will be even better to test the limits," he explained further about the results.

Mark Atineza nodded, "Yes, Yes. That is good. Get them into the testing as soon as possible." He looked down at the scientists on the course getting everything ready. There was water, glaciers, animals, and Erasers getting ready.

"Is Ms. Jannsen here yet?" Mr. Chu asked Captain 1. He nodded.

"Yes Sir. She is down in Storage B2 with Maximum Ride and her flock with the clone and the other hybrids. She should be back anytime actually."

The door behind Mr. Chu opened and in walked Marian Janssen and another woman wearing a suit.

Mr. Chu and Mark Atineza looked at her shocked and delighted.

"Oh my goodness Marian," Mr. Chu said taking her hand and kissing it, "I've only talked on the phone with you and I must say you are very beautiful, "he looked at her face closely, "My God. You look very similar to Maximum Ride. I see you changed her features to look like yours."

Captain 1 mentally rolled his eyes, standing expressionless and watching them greet.

Marian Janssen went over to examine what Captain 1 had come up with.

"This is.... good. I like it. But what will the hybrids be wearing in the extreme temperatures?" Marian turned to Captain 1.

He looked at her then to Mr. Chu and Mark Atienza.

"We were are to give them winter jackets. They are to wear the clothing they already have."

Marian shook her head, "No, no, no. That won't do. The last thing we need is another reason for Max to resist." Marian looked at Mr. Chu then to him.

"Well you are right." Mark Atienza agreed, raking his hand through his light blonde hair.

* * *

It had been maybe an hour since Marian and I had our little chat.

Max2, the flock, and Haley's flock had all fallen asleep. The Voice had disappeared also.

I laid down on my back, stretching my wings as far as they could go in the little space I had, and looked up at the gray top of the dog crate. Memories ( yes finally) appeared in my head of when we were here before. When we were on a mission to save Angel.

I shifted from side to side trying to get comfortable. Finally I sat up and looked around the large room.

_How were we going to escape?_

_How were we going to escape?_

_How were we going to escape?_

_Dammit!_

That question raced again and again inside my head and no answer was coming.

I shook my head, getting a small headache.

"Max?"

I turned in my cage to see Fang sitting up and looking at me. The first thing I saw was where the bullet had gotten him. There was a pang of guilt in my heart.

"Uhh yeah?" I tried to say casually, trying to look away from his wing. He smiled his half smile and turned his head to look at it.

"It stings. That's all."

I shook my head not buying what he was saying, "Yeah _okay _Fang,"I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah." he said.

"Those damn whitecoats need to get that fixed. Something could happen.... you could loose that wing." I looked at it again.

He sighed and shook his head, "I'm not loosing my wing anytime soon, Max. Don't worry."

I smiled, playing with a strand of hair that was in my face.

"I'm going to ask Marian." I mummbled.

He looked at me, "Well....... Okay."

"Good." I said.

We looked at each other for a second then I broke away.

"I wonder what Chuey has in store for us." Fang added.

I shrugged, "I kinda don't wanna know."

* * *

"Wake up!" a whitecoat shouted into a megaphone. I groaned and stretched, opening my eyes to see a butt ugly whitecoat peering down into my cage.

"Wooow." I whispered. This guy didn't look like he was a scientist.

He looked more like a biker who belonged in a bar rather than an evil science lab.

His hair was white blond, trimmed short with a blue and white bandanna, he had two silver hoops bot ears, tattoos visible on his neck, and his lab coat looked a little small on him.

I sat up and looked at the rest of the flock. They all got up slowly.

"Up 'en at 'em!" the biker whitecoat shouted into his megaphone again. He looked over to the side and motion with his head for a couple of Erasers to come over. Slowly he opened my dog crate, then grabbing me by the collar of my jacket and dragging me out. I hit the linoleum floor with a muffled thud. He threw a thick black winter coat on the ground next to me along with a had some boots, gloves, and goggles.

"Put that on." An Eraser growled and walked over to Max2 and Fang's cages. He let them out too.

I picked up the coat and looked at the back. It already had big slits for my wings and flaps that went over them.

How thoughtful. My wings could get cold.

The whitecoat gave Max2 the same thing as me.

We looked like twins.

Ughhh..

He looked over at Fang now.

"You are going with me into the O.R. We're _fixing_ your wing. But don't worry," he looked at me then to him smiling devilishly, "You'll see your girlfriend again."

I wanted to smack him hard upside the head.

I looked at Fang. He stood the same height as the whitecoat, looking at him with an expression with so much hatred it sent a shiver down my spine.

"What about them?" I said looking at the flock then to the whitecoat narrowing my eyes.

"They'll come." the whitecoat spat back.

I looked over at the flock and gave them a conforting look.

Angel looked at me with a brave little look. Iggy and the Gasman nodded. Nudge and Total both pressed themselves against the bars and nodded.

"Okay." I said looking at Fang.

He nodded his head.

* * *

Oh I definatley knew where we were going when the whitecoat, Chuck, had given me and Max those snow coats. Back to that huge dome place where I had almost drowned when running away from Erasers.

But I guess we weren't going to be running in a warm jungle. Nope. Somewhere cold.

Great.

We walked out of the room where our dog crates were down long twisty hallways. Max and I stayed quiet most of the time, occasionally looking at each other and then to the four Erasers escorting us to wherever.


	25. Chapter 25

"Ohhh.." I shivered.

We had walked down a whole bunch of stairs, rode three elevators, and took something that looked like a golf cart to wherever. It was getting colder and colder the farther we went down. My nose was red and I probably had icicles around where my wings poked out of the coat. The Erasers injected us with something that made me so calm, and not twitchy. I could barley move my muscles to do anything besides walk and flick some Erasers the bird when they got to snappy.

Max2 was able to tell me on a couple of details before an Eraser kicked at her. Turns out we were going into this huge place, a couple of miles long, where our abilities were going to be "tested". And by tested I mean they're going to try every possible way to hurt/torture us. When she had first done the test they injected her with some stuff that was suppose to mak her even more of a superhuman mutant than she already was. To be stronger and better than me.

But she was in a warm, sunny, jungle. And by the temperature of the place we were at I don't think that is where we are going know.

Pushing past a couple of doors we were in a huge storage area, the walls all metal, big fluorescent lights hanging down from the ceiling, machines and machines. We passed multiple stations of equipment, machines, test tubes, and whitecoats. They all looked cozy in the sate of the art Arctic survival gear just like the Erasers who were walking behind us. We just got a huge coat, boots, gloves, you know what I mean.

* * *

There was a low swish of the hydroclics in the two hundred foot, frost covered doors. Freezing air and snow burst through the cracks and onto my face, making my cheeks and eyes burn and sting. A wave of goosebumps and ice pricked throughout my whole body. I pulled my goggles on quickly, then pulling the large hood of the coat over my face.

_Cold! Cold!_

I closed my eyes as a sudden rush of memories of how cold Antarctica filled my head. Pictures of white snow and ice came into view, the skylarks, and when Iggy could actually see the penguins in front of the ice.

"Hey? Max?" Max2 shook my shoulders.

I opened my eyes and looked over at her, dazed for a second, then to the whitecoat who was watching me.

"I------Uhh----Okay." I shook my head swallowing.

The whitecoat cleared his throat and stepped in front of us.

"This is what you are going to do. You must get to the other side of the tundra as fast as you can. There will be something of great importance to you at the end. Erasers will be chasing you and they will be guarding the important item. We will be pushing you till you hit the wall," he glanced over at Max2 who gave him a mean look, "Or a river. The Erasers will hurt you, they will bite you. You must fight back. And NO FLYING."

Those words hit me fast. Great. No flying.

I looked over at Max2 then to her wings and could see burnt feathers. Oh boy. I could tell this was going to be worse than it already was.

Two Erasers grabbed my arms. My heart began racing. The thing they injected us with was defiantly wearing off. My brain kicked into high gear. I threw my head back, pushing my body back against an Erasers body, then elbowing his ribs. It didn't work as much as I wanted, due to the bulk of the coat. I jumped and grabbed his head, snapping my hands to the side. No luck.

The Eraser smack my head with the back of his paw. Another Eraser grabbed me and cuffed something sharp and extremely hot onto my wings. I bit my lip feeling my feathers burn, the skin of where they joined my back burning. I took in deep breathes trying to sustain the immense pain I was in.

* * *

Max2 and I both stepped into the fake tundra and the doors closed slowly. I watched the doors close, then turned back to look. The only thing I could see for the half of mile was snow and ice. It looked just like Antarctica. Like a winter wonder land.

_There will be something of great importance to you at the end. _The whitecoat's words played in my head.

"Who ever gets there first will get the item of great importance. The other will not," I could make out Marian's voice over the loud speaker somewhere high up above the storm clouds, "Take a look and see who it is girls. We have some motivation."

A loud moaning sound came from above. Something black began to appear out of the clouds a two hundred feet away. Slowly a giant flat screen TV came down from the ceiling, however high. Ice and frost covered the slick black screen and the picture was fuzzy coming in and out of view. Slowly it came into focus and I realized we were looking at something wearing a winter coat and black wings.

Black wings.

Fang was the only person out of my flock or Haley's flock who had black wings.

The screen fuzzed out for a second and Fang's face came into view. My jaw dropped and I felt my heart crack.

Fang!

they took Fang.

He was only wearing a coat and a hat and his regular clothes. Nothing else in the cold.

Anger and raged boiled inside me taking all the cold out of my body. How dare they?! How dare they take him and make him freeze?!

Because they're evil and won't know what will hit them when I rip their throats out with my teeth.

He was huddled together against a cage bar, shaking rapidly, pain in his eyes, bruises all over his face. Blood was smeared across his face. Then suddenly the screen went blank.

"Fang.." I whispered his name, holding my hand out.

"Fang looks very cold Max. Get there in time." Marian echoed.

Marian was going to pay big time.

The screen fuzzed and crackled, I held my breath to see who it was next. Slowly Mackenzie came into view. Her jaw was bruised and she had two black eyes. I looked over at Max2 and she looked over at me.

"Mackenzie?" she said her name like she was asking me if I knew anything about it. I shrugged.

* * *

They had Mackenzie?

They had Mackenzie!

I have to admit, I did care a little bit about Mackenzie and Emma. We had become good friends. They were like the flock members I never had. Like how Max had a flock of her friends.

Her image was fuzzy and came in and out of view. I squinted to see better through the white snow. Her jaw was all bruised and she had two black eyes. I looked over at Max and she was looking at me.

"Mackenzie?" I asked like I was asking her for any other information. She shrugged and looked back up at the screen.

"Mackenzie needs your help Max. Now your time will start when the buzzer sounds. Now come on my girls. You know you want to save them." Marian announced.

I got angrier and angrier, not feeling cold anymore. In factthe exact opposite. I wanted to rip her head off with my bare hands.

Violent. Yes.

* * *

The giant TV lifted back up behind the clouds and disappeared. Adrenaline rushed through me and I was high off of adrenaline already. There was a loud buzzing sound.

"Max?" Max2 said my name. I turned to look at her.

"What?"

"You know only one person can get out..." she trailed off and looked off into the distance.

"Who ever gets there first." I said reading her mind.

We both nodded.

Cold air filled my lungs as I began to run as fast as I could. Fang's cold painful face played in my head again and again. It was hard to run in the almost knee deep snow, and I had the urge to snap my wings out and fly the two miles in a few minutes. But the burn of the cuffs reminded me not to fly. The only thing of my advantage was I could run faster than your Olympic stars. My feet were frozen already and my fingers were ready to fall off. I shook intensely. I grabbed onto a tall chunk of ice poking out from the ground to keep my balance. The storm clouds from above were spewing a blizzard, the wind thrashing snow. It was extremely hard to see. All gray and white.

_Which way to go?_

There was a chunk of glacier near by floating in the water. The wind blew rabidly, the hood of my coat shaking, and I held it closer to my head. My lips were cracked from the dryness. Stumbling through the snow I ran across, falling on my face in ice.

"Damn."

_Ahoooo_!

They had let Erasers go.

Great.

I got onto my feet and began running blindly. I had to get as much distance as I could from me and the Erasers. They barked and snapped their jaws. I wonder if they got to use their wings.

I looked back, rubbing the frost off of my goggles, to see if they were close. Four hundred feet away I could make out black fur.

Max2 was somewhere ahead of me. Oh no. I needed to get in front, I needed to get to Fang. I needed to. Sorry Mackenzie. Sorry Max2.

My legs weren't moving fast enough. They were too weak. My wings would get me there faster.

_Come on! Come on! _

My boots thunked in the snow, slipping when I jumped onto the glacier. It was hard to get a grip onto something and to find places to put your feet. "Arhhrgh.." I pulled myself up. Small pieces of ice breaking off and bouncing off of my goggles and face.

* * *

**There is Chapter 25. I'm adding the rest of the stuff in the next chapter. Yeah. :) **


	26. Chapter 26

**HI! Well yeah in this chapter Max2 will have a flash back of her life with Ari 'n stuff. You'll get what I'm saying. I wanted to show Max2 and Ari's brother and sister thing. Comment. Favorite. Alert. And Subscribe. Enjoy everyone. Oh and Nighthawk21? What I just want to say about your comment is this-- XD LOL **

* * *

"Huh-uh-huh." I breathed in and out slowly getting to the top of the glacier. It had taken only thirty minutes for me to get up to the top of the hundred foot glacier. My arms and legs felt weak and rubbery and I felt so tired, I felt like just falling asleep here on the ice.

But I couldn't.

I needed to save Fang from whatever the whitecoats were going to do to him if I didn't reach him on time. I couldn't let Max2 get there first. I needed to get Fang. Needed to.

Luckily the snow storm had calmed down from before but it was still hard to see.

Slowly I climbed to my feet, pulling my hood closer to my head, and looking out into the distance. The Erasers were pretty far away. I could take a minute to find my way around this place. I couldn't see Max2. Then I saw gray. About a mile away I could see a small gray speck. Could it be the entrance? No. I turned around, the doors were in the other direction. My heart began to beat faster in my chest, hope filling me a little bit.

Fang could be there.

My wings twitched from the cold air and I needed to snap them out. I mean I hadn't felt this feeling of wanting to fly before. Well I don't remember ever. I needed to fly. I needed to feel the cool wind on my feathers, feel weightless and free. I needed to get to freaking Fang as fast as I could!

_God! You stupid idiot! Stop standing around on a freaking piece of ice and mope about not being able to fly! You're Max! Improvise! _I yelled at myself. I moved off of the side of the ice made ledge, dangling down. I looked down at my feet, getting my foot in a groove in the ice and began to climb down.

_Hand. Foot. Hand. Foot. _

I kept on repeating those words in my head, getting farther down.

"Ahh!!" I bit down on my tongue as my had slipped and I began falling down towards the ground. I landed on my back with a hard thud onto the snow. "Ouch." I groaned, my shoulders and wings feeling like pudding. My stomach hurt like hell and I probably needed my legs amputate they were so cold. And now I had blood coming out of my mouth from biting down on my tongue.

* * *

I looked around in the white snowstorm. Where was Mackenzie and where I was suppose to go? I stomped through the snow, my senses on high alert. Where was Max? Where were the Erasers?

The last time I had seen her was when we began to storm off through the snow to find our way around to wherever the whitecoats were keeping Mackenzie and Fang. My cheeks were burning and bleeding, a piece of ice stuck in my cheek. It hurt, but the extreme cold soothed it a little bit.

The snow was pretty deep, going almost to my knees and hard to walk through. Just walking through this snow was burning the energy I needed if I had to get Mackenzie out first.

What would happen to Fang?

I don't know.

Extra testing?

But I'm not going to be worrying about him. Honestly, even though she has like not even half of her memory back, I think Max will be able to save him. If not then I will try to help her get him. Yes, I know, me caring about another person. How many is that now? Five?

Max, Emma, Mackenzie, Me, and Ari.

Ari.

He was my brother too. We grew up together. Lived together our whole lives at the School.

I shook my head. Why was I thinking about Ari. I don't know.

* * *

_(flashback)_

_I sat in my cage, maybe eight or nine years old from my guess. The whitecoats had just put me through so many tests. Running through mazes, doing complex equations, and flying. _

_Flying was amazing. _

_The Erasers were not._

_I was just a kid. A little kid with wings. _

_The doors to the storage unit the Director had put me in had opened and white light filled the room. I could hear a couple of whitecoats talking. They sounded so excited. More than excited. They were literally skipping down the hall, pushing a cart. _

_"I hope it's not my cage for another test." I whispered almost inaudibly to myself. The whitecoats got closer and I shrunk back into my cage, shaking. The whitecoats talked and talked happily. Those monsters. They thought doing this was normal. They were having fun and talking like they were at the water cooler having some water. They were bringing in another experiment. Another grown up or another little kid who was tortured. _

_"So successful. Batchelder's son! To think of it! He hasn't died and it's already been a couple of months. It's amazing! A successfully Eraser made from a regular human child." a whitecoat exclaimed. Eraser? Oh no. _

_"Oh I know. I want to do further blood tests," the whitecoat looked at me through his thick wired glasses, "Maybe even get him to fight with the clone of Subject 2!" _

_I shivered and looked away. I don't think I was ready to fight anyone. The whitecoats kept on talking and talking. I just wanted them to go away. Wishing they would just leave._

_Finally they left._

_I laid down in my cage, not facing the Eraser in the cage next to me. I didn't want to look at him. No._

_"Hi."_

_He talked!_

_"Hi." he tried again. I sat up and turned around._

_He sounded so little. He looked little. There sitting was a little boy with wispy brown and blond hair. His eyes were big and dark, like mine. But the other half of him looked like he was thirty. He looked so Eraserish._

_"Hi." I squeaked._

_He smiled. He looked so hopeful. He did know that we were in hell right? Yes._

_"I'm Ari. What's your name?" he went on conversationally. I smiled at the dopey expression on his face. I edged closer so that I was pressed against the bars._

_"I'm--uhhh--Maximum Ride. But you can call me Max for short."_

_"That's a cool name." he said. I laughed._

_"What's so funny?" he sounded confused. My smile melted into a scowl and I turned to look away._

_"You. Why? Why...You sound so happy and so hopeful. I mean don't you see the pain here? The misery? I'm just wondering why you seem so cheery and happy." I turned and looked at him. Then I looked at the scars and bruises all over his body from where he was trying to be morphed into an Eraser. His happy smile vanished and I felt a little guitly, wanting to turn back time and take back what I said. So I could see his sweet happy smile again. For a odd reason he seemed like a little brother of mine. But I highly doubted that._

_Soon his little smile was back, showing the long caines poking his lips, "Ohhh I know my daddy will come and get me. My dad Jeb Batchelder. He left for a little while with some bird kids to do something. But don't worry. He'll come back. He'll come back and rescue me. Take me to where he took the other bird kids. Then we can live like a big family. Besides my Mommy. She died." He seemed so confident. So sure of his dad._

_It made me wish I had a dad like his dad._

_"He'll come back. He'll come back. I know he will. He'll rescue me for sure. Make me a normal kid again." he kept on repeating. _

_

* * *

_Tears streamed down my cheeks and I felt them freeze.

Ari.

"Ari." I gasped in a sob. I leaned against a bank of ice, sliding down onto my knees and wiping away tears with my gloves. That only made my face even more wet and even more cold.

_"He'll come back. He'll come back. I know he will. He'll rescue me for sure. Make me a normal kid again." _

That scene repeated in my head again and again. Ari seemed so hopeful. So sure. But that little boy, who said those words in such confidence would get his dream crushed when his father never came back. Never saved him. I would never see that little boy again. But I would see someone totally different. That Ari would be there for a few seconds those seconds before he would die.

I let out another sob and it disappeared in the howling wind...

Ari...

* * *

_(flashback)_

_Germany. We were in the Itex HQ in Germany. The revolt that the tons of clones of everyone had gone in revolt against the Director. That monster Marian. I had helped Max, Angel, and Nudge get away from the group. Max had her show down with Omega and won. That kid was a total pleep. Never liked him. He thought he was the best and better than anyone. But hello?! Wave your hand in front of his face and that kid was so confused._

_The Director had but shackles on me near the gates. The only thing I could do was fly and not very far. _

_I hovered above the crowd of clones fighting and just creating chaos. Kids had come over the walls and were even attacking. Something told me it had to do the Fang's blog._

_Yes. I was a follower on his blog. First it was survailance. Now it was just for fun. _

_I looked down to see Ari and Maximum Ride fighting a bunch of those robots the Director had created. I saw them kicking their butts. I cheered Ari on in my head, remembering when we used those to train so many months and maybe even years ago. But suddenly Ari went down on the ground like a rock. My heart stopped. _

_Get up. I shouted in my head. _

_I couldn't get to him. _

_"Ari!" I shouted his name. My voice echoed. Then it hit me that Maximum Ride had also shouted his name. She ran to him and held his head up._

_"Ari!" she shouted again. _

_"Ari! No!" I screamed on the top of my lungs. Tears blurred my vision when I saw his lift his head up and look and me, smiling. Smiling that smile I saw when I first met him. The day our cages were put next to each other. Ari. My little brother Ari. _

_He looked at Maximum Ride and said something to her. I couldn't make out the words but she began crying. I screamed Ari's name again, wanting him to look at me again. _

_"Ari!" _

_He slowly closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, his body slumping in Max's arms. _

_He was dead. Max put her head down, placing his head down, whispering something in his ear and getting up, leaving. _

_NO! NO! NO! NO! Ari! _

_I pulled at the shackles, my hands and wrists bleeding and raw from pulling. With all my force I pulled again. The metal loosen and then broke off of my hand. My wrists bled like crazy. _

_Shooting like a rocket I whizzed through the air to where Ari laid. Landing I ran over and collapsed onto him, crying and crying. I couldn't stop. Even if I wanted to. I felt so vulnerable. _

_"Ari. Ari don't go. You're my brother. You're my only family. Don't leave me." I whispered. _

_Nothing. _

_Ari was gone._

_

* * *

_

Slowly I stopped, shaking, but not from the cold. Ari. I couldn't stop thinking about him for some reason. Just couldn't. Maybe I wanted him to be in that cage instead of Mackenzie. Maybe I wanted that happy little boy again. Yes I did.

I got to my feet and began walking forward. The wind pushed against me. I couldn't stand anymore. I was so tired. But I needed to keep going. I needed to get Mackenzie out and get her and her flock out of the School.

Yes.

I didn't want what happened to Ari to happen to anyone else.

I promise that.

* * *

The flock sat in the large room where their cages sat.

"Where do you think Max and Fang could be?" Nudge uttered, playing around with a curly piece of hair in her face. It had already been an hour. What kind of test or experiment could it be.

"I have no idea. Probably somewhere getting burned or freezing their asses off." Iggy guessed. The Gasman nodded and Angel shrugged, too tired to think about anything else.

Angel knew Max and Fang were going to be okay. Max and Fang were always okay. They were literally invisible. She knew they weren't really but they were really tough.

"They'll be okay." Total assured. He dropped onto his belly, looking around. "Hey? Do you think Akila has given birth to the puppies yet?"

Nudge, the Gasman, Iggy, and Angel all looked up at him. Their eyes (minus Iggy's) had a glint of curiosity in them. Iggy's face had a look of wonder.

"She could." the Gasman shrugged, thinking about it.

"Yeah. There might be a whole bunch of little talking and flying Totals or Akila's back in New York." Iggy added. Total smiled, showing his little teeth. Nudge laughed and sat up, fluttering her wings a little bit.

They ached and were super twitchy. She had to---no-- needed to stretch and feel the air.

"God! I think my wings are going to fall off," Iggy complained, rattling the bars of his dog crate frustratedly, "Dammit!"

Emma sat cross legged, "You think you need to? I forgot how it felt to extend my wings."


	27. Chapter 27

**Okay I got some comments of people who were getting confused. yeah I understand, sometimes I just ramble on and on and on and forget to add some details. okay so I'm gonna try to explain it as best as I can. **

**1. Max and Max2 were taken to this Arctic Tundra place to get tests done (like when Max2 was running away from Erasers in that jungle thing and she fell into the water)**

**2. The whitecoats took Fang, telling the flock and max that they were going to fix his wings**

**3. Mackenzie is taken away later ( I forgot to add that part) **

**4. When Max and Max2 are inside the place they find out that the whitecoats took Mackenzie and Fang as a way of leverage. So that Max and Max2 wouldn't resist and would try to get there as fast as they could. The whitecoats are telling Max and Max2 that something will happen to the person who doesn't get saved first by Max or Max2. **

**5. Max2 is starting to think of Mackenzie and Emma as her friends or like flock members**

**6. Emma is a one of the only survivors in Haley's flock ( Haley, remember her?) and Mackenzie is her best friend. If you're confused reread chapter 19. **

**7. Haley is the girl who helped save Angel in chapter 7 and is with the flock b/c Max said she would help her find her flock. **

**8. Max2 was remembering Ari in the previous chapter because of something coming up. **

**There! Okay if there is anything else you need to get cleared then ask. **

**

* * *

**

Marian and Mr. Chu looked at the large monitors hanging from Mark Atienza's office wall. One showed Maximum Ride climbing past a bunch of ice pillars trying to hide from some Erasers. There was a smaller monitor next to it showing her heart rate, her brain function, and how well her body was processing the cold.

Marian smiled to herself. Max was doing so well. She had changed since the last time Marian had looked over her body information.

The monitor next to the first two showed Maximum Ride's clone or Max2. She was holding her own, trudging through the deep snow as fast as she could. She was travelling pretty fast, they both were, faster than a Marine or a Green Barret from the United States Army.

Marian looked over from Max's infromation to Max2's information.

"Were they both injected with the serum? she turned to Mr. Chu, her eyebrows furrowed. Mr. Chu picked up a chart from off of the desk and studied it for a moment.

"No, only the clone was. Why do you ask Ms. Jannsen?"

Marian looked from the chart Mr. Chu held out to her then to the information up on the monitors, "Their information is identical. No wait-- exactly the same." Max and Max2 were at the same places at the same time. It was a dead on tie.

Mr. Chu looked confused, "Meaning?"

"Maximum Ride's clone was injected with the Proxy serum so her abilities would be enhanced by sixty percent," she looked over at him, "Maximum Ride was not injected with the serum. But she already is that strong and that fast. She doesn't need the serum because there is already some in her blood. Her blood has had the Proxy serum for more than a couple of weeks."

Mr. Chu's eyes widened and his jaw dropped a bit, "How-How could that be?"

"If I knew, do you think I would be sounding so shocked?" Marian snapped, looking from the monitors to the charts. Mr. Chu stood silently, not wanting to make his most important guest any more angrier.

"Well then," Mr. Chu cleared his throat, "I will get some of my scientists to get some further information."

Marian nodded, not taking her eyes off of Max's monitor.

_How could that happen? I never injected a serum in her when she was here..._Marian raked her brain again and again for an answer or a possibility. Nothing.

The monitor fuzzed in and out on Max's face then to a bird's eye view. The Erasers had found her hiding behind an ice pillar.

* * *

I crept as quietly as I could in the crunchy snow behind an ice pillar jutting out of the ground. Some how the Erasers had caught up with me and had gotten my scent.

They growled and hissed, getting off of their four paws and onto their feet, sniffing the air a couple of times. My breath froze in my throat when they came closer.

_What to do? What to do? Run? Fight? Both?_ I thought. If I ran then I might not get away. If I fought that would take longer and Fang was freezing somewhere. Both? I could do that. It would be harder but I wouldn't loose any time.

"Over there! Check over there!" an Eraser ordered. The Erasers came closer and closer to me. It was now or never.

"Hello there!" an Eraser chuckled when he saw the black of my coat. He let out a roar and jumped at me. I ducked to the side and pushed myself off of the pillar to get a good start on running. The other two Erasers ran after me, snapping at my heels and clawing at my coat hood. The fur lining of my hood was getting smaller and smaller.

Finally the Eraser grasped onto my hood and pulled up backwards off of my feet. My hands flew up behind me and I tried to claw at the Eraser's eyes. The Eraser began dragging me backwards across the snow. My pants were soaking. I turned around as best as I could so that my knees brushed the snow. Then I planted my hands and feet down as best as I could, trying to stop. The Eraser pulled harder but I resisted harder. Lifting one hand up in the air, I chopped at the Erasers forearm as hard as I could to get free. I chopped again and again.

Then _snap! _I felt a bone in the Eraser's arm snap on impact after the seventh blow. He let out a loud roar and let go, grasping his arm and whining. Quickly I got to my feet and charged at the Eraser, snapkicking him in the jaw. Spit flew out of his mouth onto my face. EEEEEEKKKKKHHH... Quickly wiping away the spit I punched at his snout, ducking to the left, and punching him again. The other Erasers came at me and I jumped backwards when they snapped at me. I jumped in the air and round house kicked two in the necks. They didn't budge and puched at my face.

"Ayyyahhh!" there was a scream. I looked for a quick second to see a blur of black then Max2 jumping onto an Eraser's back. She clapped her hands hard over the Eraser's ears. The Erasers howled and spun around, trying to get her off. She didn't let go. I jumped to the side when an Eraser crashed his fist down onto the ground where I was standing.

"_OOOOFFF_." my breath escaped my lungs when an Eraser punched me in the stomach. I staggered for a second, gasping for air. Slowly the air filled my lungs and I sprang back into fighting mode. An Eraser smacked my face with his left paw and I felt his claws dig into my skin. Warm blood came down on my face and I could feel the cold air seeping into me from my wounds. Suddenly I felt really angry, feeling cold on the inside as well as the outside. This was a waste of my time. Fang was freezing and could be in even more danger! Who knows what the Erasers and whitecoats didn't tell us!

The Eraser came back in for another blow and I punched him hard in the armpit. He screamed out in pain, stiffening. I had punched him in a nerve somewhere in his armpit. This made his whole right side go numb. Slowly the Eraser crashed to the snow with a large thud.

The Erasers looked at him in horror then at me, my breath coming in deep gasps. I stood over the Eraser and he looked at me then to his buddies in pain. Max2 came and stood next to me, looking down at the Eraser also. She looked up at the Erasers and smiled devilishly.

"Anyone want some?" I asked. The Erasers began whining and jumped forward. Max2 and I jumped back, but the Eraser didn't attack us. He just grabbed the limp Eraser and ran off. The other Erasers ran after him. Max2 and watched the weenies run into a cloud of snow.

Finally when they were gone Max2 spoke up.

"Woo! What the hell was that?!" she sounded excited.

I shrugged my shoulders and wiped the blood off of my lips with the back of my hand.

"Seriously Max? What did you do?" she pressed, smacking me lightly on the back. I looked out in the distance, the cool winter wind blowing my hair in my face.

"I just punched him in the armpit. I just punched him as hard as I could. I just felt really angry and just punched him." I said flatly. Max2 looked at me for a second then shrugged.

"Okay." she simply said.

* * *

Marian and Mr. Chu looked at Maximum Ride in shock. She had just paralyzed one of their strongest Erasers with one punch. She had broke one Eraser's forearm with her bare hands. The others Erasers were scared out their witts.

"That was incredible." Mark Atienza muttered walking into the room, there was look of shock and excitement on his face.

"She definatley has the Proxy serum." Marian whispered to herself.


	28. Chapter 28

The clock on the wall slowly ticked by...

Angel, the Gasman, Iggy, Nudge, and Total had waited an hour already. An hour ago the same whitecoat from before had come to get Mackenzie and nobody knew why. They all figured it was tests because whitecoats loved tests.

"Where could Max be?" Nudge whispered to Iggy. He turned his body so that he was facing her, not looking at her but facing her. His eyes looked blank and lifeless.

"She's probably in testing. Just like Mackenzie. Well at least I hope so." Iggy trailed off. That didn't help Nudge, she needed to know.

Angel had curled up in the far corner of her dog crate and had closed her eyes for a long time. She hadn't talked for a while and hadn't responded when Total had tried to talk to her.

"Angel? Hello?" Total barked, pawing at his cage doors to make some noise. Angel just shook her head but didn't open her eyes. Total sighed and laid down on his side, looking around in the almost darkness. The whitecoats never turned on the lights in the room. Usually the only light that came in was from the cracks in the doors or when the whitecoats came in and everyone was blinded (except Iggy) by white light.

The Gasman groaned and stretched his arms and legs, "God. I really need to stand up. Ohh my wings feel like they have cramps in them."

"Yeah. Me too." Haley nodded her head, slowly extending her wings as best as she could in the small space she had. Total's ears perked up and he got up onto his back legs, holding onto the bars of his cage. He sniffed the air again and again.

"What is it Total?" Nudge looked over at him, an alarmed look on her chocolate face. Total looked over at her, an unpleasant look on his furry face.

"I hear a buzzing sound," he clamped his paws over his ears, "It's _really_ annoying." His growled.

"Oh no!" Angel shouted and she opened her eyes. Everyone turned and looked at her.

"What happened Angel?!" the Gasman asked and pressed his little face against the crate bars. Angel looked blankly at each of the flock members and then to Haley and Emma. Emma had a shocked expression.

"Did you see it too?" Emma asked shakily. Angel nodded slowly and gulped, her throat feeling extremely dry suddenly.

"Well spill it?!" Iggy shouted.

Angel rolled her eyes, "I'm rolling my eyes Iggy." He smiled and shrugged.

"Okay. I think I had a vision," Angel looked over at Emma, "Emma did too. Fang isn't getting his wing fixed and Mackenzie isn't having tests done..." She motioned fo Emma to continue.

"Well," Emma cleared her throat, "I'm not sure what I saw. But I saw Mackenzie, and the other guy, Fang, in cages. They were in cages and there were those new Erasers everywhere. Guarding them--"

"They were in the cold. Snow everywhere. It-it looked like Antarctica. Like when we went." Angel cut in.

Everyone was quiet, looking from Angel to Emma, trying to digest it.

"What the HECK?!" Haley gasped.

"Does Max know?" Nudge wondered out loud then looked at Emma.

"Maybe. Yeah I think so. I saw both of them in snow also. Maybe they're trying to save them, maybe they escaped. Sorry. I only got bits and pieces." Emma replied.

Iggy groaned, "This is probably that Mark Atienza guy's doing. Or Mr. Chu, or the ex-Director of Itex. What was her name?"

"Marian Jannsen." Angel said sounding disgusted. Iggy smiled at the way Angel said her name.

"Don't worry," Iggy reassured the younger kids, "Max and Fang are tough. I think they'll be okay."

* * *

Max2 and I decided that we should go together to where the whitecoats had put Fang and Mackenzie.

The freezing wind began to blow faster now, which felt good on the crusty blood on my face. It burned and stung a little bit but I could handle it. By my guess we had been doing this whole Arctic obstacle course thing for about an hour and a half, maybe two hours but it felt like even longer.

My jeans were soaking wet and cold from being dragged across the snow and my boots didn't really keep the ice and snow from getting into them and soaking my feet. My whole body ached and my stomach felt like it was digesting itself, I was so hungry.

I looked over at Max2 for a second. She looked the same way, wrapping her arms as best as she could around her stomach. We both were tired and hungry. I looked up at the fake sky, trying to figure out something to do when we reached Fang and Mackenzie. I wonder if Mr. Chu and Marian was watching us. Probably yes, she probably came up with this idea, she just couldn't stay away.

No. She couldn't. She just had to poke her ugly head into this. Didn't she remember being dropped out of the sky almost to her death? Apparently not.

"When we get out of here," I began,"Where are you going? I mean do you have somewhere to go?" For some reason I just wanted to know. But don't get me wrong, people. It's not like I _cared _about her or anything. Heck, I didn't even fully _trust_ her. Who knows if she might have gotten brainwashed here too and was just acting.

She didn't say anything, just kept on walking, her features now hard and stressed. I rolled my eyes getting a little irritated, not showing it on my face.

_Max?! _The words appeared quickly in my head, catching me off guard. I stopped for a split second, then walking. Max2 eyed me but didn't say anything. Probably thinking it was jus Voice being sneaky little Voice like it always was.

_Max?! _The thought came back except this time I knew it wasn't Voice.

_Angel? _I thought, concentrating on her.

_Yes! It's me! _Angel replied.

Angel could send me thoughts like this now? Her powers were advancing so quickly! First the mind reading, then the controlling, the visions, the knowing things just like that. That kid could be a dangerous weapon now. Think about it. A seven year old little bird _kid_ being able to _control_ people? Trouble.

_What is it Angel?!_I thought back urgently. What could have happened to the flock!? Maybe whitecoats had gotten someone. Maybe someone was hurt. Maybe the whitecoats might have put her in the snow too. No. If they did that--I'm not even going to go into detail on how I was going to get 'em.

_It's Fang! He's somewhere! Somewhere! I think they shipped him to Antarctica! Him and Mackenzie! And they're in cages! Freezing! By the way where are you!? I saw you and Max2 and Fang and Mackenzie in somewhere that looked like Antarctica! Did they take you there? Max? _Her thoughts bombarded my brain, making my head spin. I grounded myself, trying to organize what Angel was trying to say. Fang. In Antarctica. Me and Max2 in Antarctica. Mackenzie in Antarctica. Okay. I got what she was trying to say.

_Angel, sweetie, I know. I'm still at the School. So is Fang, Max2, and Mackenzie. It's this indoor obstacle course made to look like Antarctica. Mackenzie and Fang are in cages and me and Max2 are going to save them. Okay? _I thought slowly, repeating it a couple of times so Angel could pick it up.

It was quiet for a few minutes and I walked silently.

_Okay Max. Be careful. _Angel's thoughts slowly floated to my head and I nodded.

_Tell the others. _I ordered. The cold Arctic wind began blowing fiercely, snow pelting my face. I groaned and pulled my hook and collar put that my eyes were only poking out.

"I Wish they'd given us some ski masks." I shouted to Max2 over the now roaring wind. A storm was beginning. Great.

"Yeah! But that's their job. Torture us." Max2 replied and I could barley make out her voice even though she was standing two feet away from me. It was getting super cold all of a sudden. Probably from the storm.

But not this time. Something was wrong. My whole body began shaking uncontrollably, only the heat of the cuffs on my wings giving me some extra heat.

_What's happening?! Why is this suddenly happening?!_

"What's happening?" Max2 shouted alarmed. We both dropped to our knees, unable to move from the cold. I looked down at my legs. Hypothermia? Maybe? My hands shook rapidly and I clenched them tight, trying to make it stop. No use. I pushed off of my trembling hands, barley standing up. Max2 did the same. The wind screamed and roared, snow going everywhere. Everything looked like a gray blur. Temperatures were most defiantly dropping. What were the whitecoats doing? Were they trying to kill us? Was that their plan all alone? Kill us using the cold, not injecting us with something or blowing our heads off.

I shook my head trying to get the thoughts out. My head hurt badly. "We need to get to some kind of shelter! Come on!" I shouted, grabbing Max2 and barley getting her to stand up. We are barley able to run in the knee deep snow to find something.

"There!" Max2 points at a cave made out of ice and snow. It was curved inward, making it perfect to block out the snow. I let go of Max2 and we both make a run for it. It was hard running, but we were getting closer.

_If only we could fly!_ I scream in my head, cursing.

* * *

"I know where Max and everyone else are!" Angel announces, after trying to send her thoughts to Max. It had worked perfectly.

"Where?!" the Gasman asks, sitting up in his small dog crate. The others turn, facing Angel. She clears her throat and tells them.

"It's this indoor obstacle course made to look like Antarctica. Mackenzie and Fang are in cages and Max and Max2 are trying to get them. They're still at the School, just somewhere." she finished.

Emma perked up, "An obstacle course? We had to do one of those before. Me, Mackenzie, and the other Max. Except it was a warm jungle and we were being chased by Erasers." Haley looked at her wide eyed.

"Is that why you have all of those bruises and cuts?!" she asked, a look of rage on her face. Emma cleared her throat and nodded slowly. Haley groaned, disgusted.

"I'm gonna kill those---God." she mumbled to herself, holding onto a bar and gripping it tightly, getting her anger out. The metal bar squeaked and crooked in a way that sent a shiver down everyones spine.

"If Max doesn't kill 'em first." Nudge warned and everyone laughed.

"But," Haley looked at Nudge and Angel frowning, "What do Fang and Mackenzie, maybe even Max2 have to do with that?"

Nudge shrugged, "Maybe as leverage. 'Cause knowing Max, she would defiantly kick some Eraser Heine. Maybe something different."

"And Max2 is there so they can compare them. Mackenzie is probably her leverage." Angel added, tilting her head to the side and thinking.

_Yeah! That makes sense!_ Angel thought and smiled.

"How long to think they have," Emma pressed her lips together and said, "I mean we only had an hour to get to the other side. And we weren't able to use our wings. They put these horrible hot cuffs around." She turned around and showed the pink and white burn marks where her wings met her back.

"I'm not sure," Angel trailed off.

Iggy groaned, clenching his stomach, "I'm so hungry. I think my stomach is eating itself." His face twisted into a hungry scowl and the Gasman couldn't help but laugh. Then his stomach twisted and groaned and the Gasman felt like he was going to puke.

"Geeez." the Gasman whined, laying down on his back and held his stomach. That's how everyone felt. The flock and Haley hadn't had a meal in two days. Emma hadn't had something to eat in three. All of them were wiped out.

* * *

Fang sat in his cage, freezing cold. His whole body shook rapidly and he was covered in snow and ice. The whitecoats had only given him a small coat that didn't do anything. He was barley able to wrap his wings around his arms. The wind roared wild and sent snow all over him through the open bars.

The whitecoats had brought him and Mackenzie here, who was in a cage twenty feet away. They were on top of large ice made pillars with tons of Erasers guarding them. The only thing he knew was that Max and Max2 were racing to get him or Mackenzie.

He squinted, looking out into the distance. A snow storm was forming. A big snow storm. The only thing the could see was gray. Max was out there, out there in the cold. She was in a place that was exactly like Antarctica. And that meant anything could happen.

Fang closed his eyes and leaned back against the back of the dog crate. He pulled the coat closer to himself and focused on his breathing, trying to ignore the cold.

* * *

_(Max2 POV)_

Max and I finally reached the ice cave. We stumbled in and collapsed onto the snow, breathing heavily. Travelling fifty feet really took the energy away from us. We laid there for a few minutes, trying to relax and get our energy back.

"Gosh." Max breathed, stretching the word out as she exhaled. She turned onto her stomach, resting her head on her hands. "I'm so tired," she yawned, "So sleepy." She said, holding her head. She looked out in the distance for a few minutes, occasional annoyed glances and rolling of the eyes. It was probably the voice inside her head.

I leaned back against the wall of the small cave, my head barley brushing the top when I sat up, waiting.

"We only have an hour left." she finally said, irritated. I looked up at her, my eyes widening an inch.

"What?" I asked.

She nodded and looked down at her feet, then to out at wherever. She rolled her eyes and shrugged, pointing to her head, "the Voice told me. It knows these kinds of things." she said seriously, not taking it as a joking matter.

"We need to get there, we need to run. We need to freaking _fly_!" I shouted. I looked up at the roof of the small ice cave, "Dammit." I wanted to punch someone so badly. How were we supposed to get to Fang and Mackenzie when we couldn't even see our own hands in front of our faces out in that storm.

"Well," Max began, "We're just going to have to used to the stupid thought that we can't fly through this. Like we didn't have them." she said the words reluctantly. She and I both knew that would be total hell if that was the case. Wings? Gone? BIG NO NO.

I looked at the snow blowing, some of it coming into the cave and getting us.

_Think. Think. _I repeated.


	29. Chapter 29

Mr. Chu watched Marian, as she looked at the monitors of Maximum Ride and Maximum Ride 2.0. Her eyes had never once left the screens and she typed away at the laptop sitting in her lap. She was very dedicated; maybe even obsessed with finding out why Maximum Ride was acting the way she was. Why she had the effects of the Proxy serum they had only injected in the clone. Mr. Chu admired her dedication, that was useful.

Marian, Mark Atienza, and Mr. Chu had come up with an agreement to make it that they only had another hour. Mr. Chu was supposed to tell that to the girls but he decided not to. If they failed, then they'd have to endure the Arctic again. Then again. He could see that. He hadn't told anyone but he was enjoying seeing Maximum Ride in pain, he liked seeing the Erasers and the cold get to her. He could say it was an evil thought. But Maximum Ride was destroying everything before all of this happened. She had to help start the CSM and because of that he was loosing his money.

This was payback.

The picture on the screen became fuzzy, going in and out of view. The next thing that appeared was Max and Max 2.0 in a small ice cave. The storm he had the scientists create had gotten to them. Their whole bodies began to shake rapidly and they had barley made it into the cave before collapsing. They both looked sick to their stomachs, probably from hunger.

Mr. Chu still couldn't wrap his brain around the whole clone idea. It was brilliant. It was confusing... He looked from the two. They looked exactly the same, except minor changes in their hair, and they both had the same expressions on their faces. Both had mad scowls, showing anger and strength, never fear or pain.

He shook his head and rolled his eyes. Why was he thinking this rubbish!? He crossed his arms over his chest, playing with the patches on his navy green shirt. In the room with them were Captain 1 and Captain 3. Captain 2 and Captain 4 had other work to do. Mostly they needed to keep an eye on the other avian hybrids. He knew of the two that could create explosives (Iggy and the Gasman) and the small one who could read and maybe control minds (Angel). He knew of the one that could attract metal (Nudge) and the one who could create vision quests and sometimes get them to people (Emma). The dog (Total) and the other one (Haley) were the only ones who he knew was safe.

Captain 1 and 3 stood in the back corner, keeping their distances, watching Mr. Chu and Marian intently, also watching around for danger. They both held a giant FN M249 SAW machine gun to their chests. The weight so much, but Mr. Chu had ordered each captain to have one with them at all times. They leaned against the walls.

Marian rubbed her tired, dry eyes and leaned back in the chair. After all of the constant monitoring, the entire constant comparing it didn't make sense. It was like her body was creating the Proxy serum. No. Marian shut the thought out completely. It was impossible. Yes, people said that about many things. For example, grafting wings onto a human. But they did that. They did that more than once. But this was defiantly impossible. That serum was created by people, and couldn't regenerate again and again in someones body. Even if that person was a human and avian hybrid.

Marian put the laptop aside on the table and got up out of her seat, fixing the collar of her lab coat. "I want blood samples from the other avian hybrids she has been with. Her flock. Including the one that is in the Arctic tundra course, get some from him," she said to the scientist who was standing next to her and jotting down notes, "I even want the dog's blood. We need to compare it." she ordered. "I wonder if they have this too." she murmured quietly, almost to herself.

"Yes ma'am," the scientist nodded her head, "Should we get the others also? I mean, the avian experiment's that were not recently captured?"

Marian frowned, "Did I say we need their blood? No right?" The scientist nodded, scribbling something onto her clipboard and walking out the door. Marian rubbed her temples, trying to relax. Mr. Chu cleared his throat.

"Excuse me Ms. Jannsen, but I am needed else where. Take your time in here. I will be back."

Marian looked up at him, "Fine." She said and looked back at the monitor of Maximum Ride, showing her heat rate and brain functions. "She looks tired. Sleepy almost. Both of them do." she said to herself and quickly grabbed her laptop. Her fingers moved fast over the keys, typing in information. She looked up and typed. Mr. Chu chuckled to himself and walked out of the door. Captain 1 and 3 followed right behind him, closing the door.

Marian watched Max and Max2 talking, waiting for the storm to blow over. .

"If only we could _fly_." Max2 looked irritated. Max laid down on her stomach, head rested on her hands.

"Yeah." she agreed.

Marian thought for a second. Could she take the cuffs off of their wings? They were remote controlled. All she needed to do was push a button and they would turn off and let go of the wings. She smiled to herself. That might show Max that she wasn't bad, wasn't evil. Marian opened another Word document. She typed _Maximum Ride and Maximum Ride 2.0 with their Wings. _Quickly she typed in what time and date she had taken their cuffs off. She got up out her chair and moved to the other side of the room where Mark Atienza's desk sat and picked up the phone. She dialed in the extension 2466. The phone rang for a couple of seconds before it was answered.

"Laboratory 3. Dr. Seroine speaking," a woman answered.

"Hello? This is Dr. Jannsen," Marian said.

"Yes Dr. Jannsen?" Dr. Seroine asked.

Marian told her to disable the wing cuffs and to slow the storm down. "Got it?'" she finally asked.

Dr. Seroine was quiet for a second and sounded reluctant when she said, "Yes. Right away ma'am." The phone clicked dead. Marian put the phone back down on the cradle and sat back down on her chair, taking long sips of hot coffee. She rubbed her eyes and looked up at the monitors, just trying to watch the girls instead of filling in information. Her hands itched to pick up the laptop and type in what they were doing and the intensity of everything.

But no.

She wanted to see the looks on their faces when the cuffs turned off and unlocked. On the small digital clock next to her showed 12:30 pm. Had it been this long? She beamed at the girls, seeing that they had almost finished the experiment and it only took about two hours. For a regular person, a regular man who was trained in the Marines would take about six to eight hours. This was extraordinary. Even for an avian experiment. Even for any experiment. She smiled. She had to get this information.

* * *

Max2 and I were just sitting there when all of a sudden my wings began burning. I mean seriously burning. "What the HELL!" I shrieked. The pain was...something I've never felt before. My wings felt like someone had poured hot lava on them, and I swear I smelled burning feathers. I turned onto my back as fast as I could, the snow not helping. The cold made the heat feel even worse. Max2 bit down on her lip, rubbing her back against the snow also.

"The--the--"she gasped, not being able to get the words out. She squeezed her eyes shut and I did the same, trying to calm ourselves down. What was going on?! Why were the cuffs doing this?! It wasn't like we were trying to fly. Or the whitecoats were doing this for the heck of it.

"What the--" I gulped in breathes of cold air, my vision blurred with tears. Blinking back tears I laid in the snow, steam coming up from the sides.

"The cuffs," Max2 finally got out, "They're turning off. That's why they're burning like this." My eyes widened all the way.

"What?! YES!!!" I shouted, sitting up. Max2 smiled and punched the air and we both fell onto our backs. After five burning, agonizing minutes, the burning stopped. There was a low beeping sound and I felt them unlatch. Sitting up I shook my wings, and the wing cuffs fell off. Pure joy filled me and I sat up, stretching my wings out as much as I could without hitting Max2 in the face. Max2 did the same thing.

The wind roared, throwing snow everywhere. The freezing wind making our hair and hoods blow all around. My feathers itched and twitched in the cold. There was a loud cracking sound and snow fell down onto my face. Brushing it out of my face I looked up at the roof of the ice cave. There in the top was a two inch wide crack, going from the enterance all the way to the back. Chunks of ice began falling, pelting us. "It's gonna cave!" I warned, my voice quivering from my throat being so dry. The back caved down in a matter of seconds and Max2 and I were barley able to roll out.

"Shit! Shit! _Shit_!" Max2 screamed. I got up to see a huge block of ice on her wing. She tried to get up, pulling her wing out. But nothing would budge. Moving around I pushed the ice, it slightly moving. After one big push the ice rolled away. I brushed the snow that was clumping up on my goggles and pulled Max2 to her feet. She stretched out her wing slowly and I studied it.

"It's okay." I said, brushing some chunks off ice off. She flapped her wings a couple of times, making snow fly around even more. There was a surge of wind and it almost blew me over. I put my arms out to keep balance.

"Where are we?" Max2 squinted through her goggles and looked around. I narrowed my eyes and did a quick 360 of the area. Then it hit me. I could see large pillar a mile away from us. Just a mile. My heart began beating extremely fast and I became so excited it sent a shiver up my spine. Max2 saw it too.

We both looked at each other. This was it. Now it every bird kid to themselves. I shoved Max2 onto the ground. She hissed and got up. I instantly began running, jumping and unfurling my wings getting into the air in ten seconds. The strong winds from the storm threw me this way and that in the air. The strong wind current helped. But I needed to fly faster if I wanted to get to Fang first. With one hard down stroke I surged forward in the air. Rushing wind rang in my ears and my hair flew all over the place. My throat felt dry and the pillars were getting closer. I could see two of them. I could see two cages on top of them. Behind me I could sense Max2. She was getting closer and closer. I flapped my wings harder and wanting to go faster.

My heart swelled when I could make out Fang's face. His expression showed little pain and cold, his eyes closed, and he breathed heavily. His whole body was shaking. Anger filled me. I coasted for a second, trying to find a stronger and faster wind current. Suddenly I was pulled back and saw that Max2 had grabbed my legs. She looked seriously crazy and I kicked and squirmed. She didn't let go. I cursed and swerved around, trying to shake her off. Kicking my legs I broke free.

By now I was about fifty feet away. The only thing that was between me and Fang was a huge three hundred foot barbed fence and the thirty Erasers that were blocking my way. The Erasers had already seen us and were coming straight at me.

For some reason I stopped in mid-air, Erasers still coming at and shouted Fangs name. "FANG!" Then an Eraser came head towards me.

* * *

"FANG!"

Fang's eyes flew open and he sat up in the cage. Max?! He looked around frantically for her. The Erasers that were guarding them were all heading in one direction. He squinted in the white snow and could see brown and white wing. Either it was Max or Max2. It was defiantly Max. He could tell.


	30. Chapter 30

The wind roared and blew harshly sending snow and ice everywhere. Fang and Mackenzie held onto the bars of their cages, trying to see Max or Max2. They had both heard Max shout out Fang's name, so it was a huge sign that she had reached there first. Erasers began to go after her and attack while others circled their cages, their arms morphed into machine guns. Fang knew the Erasers wouldn't hurt Max and that Marian was trying hard to get Max to trust her. The bullets in the Eraser's guns were replaced with tranquilizers. With only one shot Max would go down and maybe loose. If Max2 got shot also then they'd get rehabilitated and would have to endure this all over again. This sent a shiver down Fang's spine. Snow and ice had made the burning of his wing go down. The blood that had crusted around his wing was frozen and falling off. It felt stiff and if he didn't treat it soon, he wouldn't be able to fly for a while. That would be a living nightmare. He shook his head, brushing snow off of hair hair and focusing on Max.

There was claw marks on her neck and her cheeks. The Erasers charged her and she flew up before an one could grab her. An Eraser grabbed her by the legs and swung her around, sending her flying. Thankfully she regained balance. Erasers began shooting the tranquilizers at her and Max was barley able to dodge them. Surging upward she flew fifty feet up, then tilted forward, her hands in front of her and began falling. She punched an Eraser with so much power the Eraser's snout was gushing non-stop. Usually that would've taken a couple of them, not just one. He squinted at the white light bouncing off of the white snow. Max swooped down away from the Erasers, going this way and that, trying to avoid the Erasers.

_What is she doing?_ He wondered.

She swerved, her wings grazing the snow and sending it flying up. There was a generator up ahead, spewing out snow. She flew over and landed, running over to where the generator buzzed. Max made her way to the generator, slipping and sliding on the ice all around it. She grabbed at pipes and poles, yanking at them. Max finally was able to get a pole out and raced forward, leaping into the air and flying up at the Erasers. She let out a roar and swung at the Erasers, getting them in the heads, in the gut, and in other places that hurt. There was look of rage on her face, the dark circles under her eyes making her look a lot scarier.

He focused his attention somewhere else and saw Max2 being grabbed by Erasers, swinging punches this way and that. Breaking free she flew to the side, dodging punches and the mass amounts of tranquilizers coming her way. There was blood smeared across her face and a new gashes on her face. One eye was swollen shut and black. She grabbed one Eraser by the arm, pulling it back and pulling it up behind his back. The Eraser growled and roared, swinging and trying to shoot at her. Max2 yanked harder and the Eraser tried shooting her again, missing and getting two Erasers in the chest. They both howled and gripped their chests. One pulled the tranquilizer out and a blank look crossed his face. Both Erasers fell to the snow like big gray ugly rocks. Then two more Erasers got hit.

The two of them were both neck and neck. It was anyone's game. He wondered what the whitecoats were going to do to whoever didn't get "saved" first. A shiver crept up his spine at the thought of what could happen. If they wanted to kill him, he hoped it would swift and quick. But he wasn't going to go down without some seriously butt kicking. He also knew Max or any of the other members of his flock wouldn't just sit back and watch. He smiled (A/N: YES HE SMILED!) to himself, thinking of what each of the flock would do.

* * *

"Mom!" Ella ran into the living room, balancing towels and a bowl of hot water in her arms. Dr. Martinez looked up at her, grabbing the towels. Akila was having her puppies. She had gone into labor an hour ago. She whined and looked in intense pain. Dr. Martinez rubbed her stomach, trying to get the puppies out. "Shh. It's okay sweetie." On the count of three, she and Jeb lifted her and put new towels in her whelping box. Akila began whining, throwing her head back. Dr. Martinez checked, her face lighting up, "I see a puppy!" she shouted to everyone. Ella, Brigid, and John waited by the door, eager to see the puppies. It was stuck.

Dr. Martinez grabbed a clean towel and pulling the puppy out, cutting the umbilical cord. She whipped off membrane and cleaned the puppy's mouth and nose before handing it over to Ella to keep it warm. Ella looked at the puppy and smiled, her eyes lighting up. It was small and gray and she could see little bumps, where the wings were going to be. Ella squinted, it kinda looked like Total.

After and hour all of the puppies were delivered. They slowly crawled over to Akila and were feeding. Akila laid on her side smiling. Dr. Martinez wiped sweat off of her head.

"This puppies look super healthy." she announced to everyone. Agent Booth and Agent Brennen had walked in, a surprised look on their faces when they saw the puppies. John was beaming, scratching Akila behind the ears. Ella and Brigid sat on their knees and looked at the puppies, huge smiles on their faces.

"They're so cute!!!!" Ella sqealled, pressing her hands to her heart. Brigid nodded, snapping pictures with her Blackberry.

Ella pointed to the small gray puppy, "This ones name should be Smokey!" she looked over at Brigid who nodded and laughed. Ella smiled and leaned back against the couch behind her.

"I wonder how the flock is doing," Ella wondered out loud. Dr. Martinez and Jeb looked over at her, their faces showing big huge smiles. Something was wrong. She could see behind the mask.

"Mom?" Ella looked around confused. Dr. Martinez looked at her with a reluctant expression,

"Yeah Hun?"

Ella narrowed her eyes, looking suspiciously from Jeb to her mom, "The flock is okay....right?" John, and Brigid both leaned in closer, wondering what Ella would say. Agent Brennen sighed casually, rubbing the back of her neck, "Yeah they are."  
Ella looked at Agent Brennen with an annoyed expression, "Are you my mom?"  
Agent Brennen frowned at didn't say anything. Ella's heart began racing fast. Had something happened to the flock and the grown ups weren't telling her? Had something really bad happen?  
The casual look on Dr. Martinez's face melted away into a hard stare, "Well--Ella---the flock---Max," she couldn't get the words out without her heart feeling like it was cracking more and more.

"They were captured by Mr. Chu and taken to the School." Jeb cut in. His voice was stressed and he looked seriously from Ella to Dr. Martinez. Dr. Martinez hung her head low, not looking at Ella.

"WHAT!!!!?????!!!" Ella screamed, jumping to her feet, trying to hold back tears, "You wait this _FREAKING LONG_ to tell me this?! What if something bad happened to them? What did you _expect_? Me all _happy_ and not knowing what the _hell_ is going on when my _sister_-- and the flock who are like family to me-- could be already _dead_?!" Her whole body was shaking, and she clenched and unclenched her hands, trying her hardest to calm down. Brigid walked over, trying to calm Ella down, but she moved away, feeling disgusted.

"Oh Ella," Dr. Martinez looked at her with a sad expression, no sobbing, no tears, just the tough as nails expression she always had in times like these. "We--I--" she didn't know what to say. What was she suppose to say? That if the CSM or the FBI tries to get involved with this Itex will kill them and release a band of Erasers to destroy everything? And on top of that do something else even more worse that they aren't telling them?  
She couldn't tell her that.  
But she had to.

Ella took in deep breathes as Dr. Martinez began to talk.

"Honey. We can't do anything. If we, the CSM, or the FBI get involved they'll kill Max and the others? Do you want that? No. Right? Besides we need to listen or they'll do things way worse to other people."

Ella stood there silently, trying to digest what she was saying. This was all so overwhelming. Was this how Max felt all of the time? Like she wanted to punch something? Ella defiantly felt like punching in something. Secretly she wanted to punch all of the grown ups in the room. One time before Max was captured and her memory was erased, Max had gotten so mad at something, she punched a big hole through Ella's bedroom wall. They still hadn't fixed it.  
Well then Ella was going to do something. She needed to toughen up and be like the flock--be like Max. She wiped the little tears on her cheeks away with the sleeve of her cashmere sweater and brushed her dark hair out of her face.

She looked down at the little puppies and Akila, not wanting to look at anyone else. "Okay." she finally muttered and moved out of the living room, marching to her room and closing the door slowly, looking at the few things Nudge and Angel owned. She flopped onto her bed, burying her head in the pillow and cried silently.

* * *

**Well have not written to all of my favorite reader out there. lol. Okay I'm gonna try to update as quick as possible but we're having tests and then there was vacation--you know. so I_ LOVE COMMENTS! PLEASE COMMENT! THAT WILL MAKE ME SO HAPPY!_ AND SUBSCRIBE! AND FAVORITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**


	31. Chapter 31

Even though it was probably negative 20 degrees in the big course place we were in it felt like a 100 to me. The 100 degrees it probably was in the sunny Death Valley of California.

Sweat, yes sweat, was dripping down off of the hair stuck to my face. The extra heat coming from my coat made it extremely uncomfortable. But I'm not complaining. It's better to feel hot than freezing your butt off right?

I thought so.

I had looked over to see if Max2_ hadn't_ busted out Mackenzie yet( and I loose Fang forever) a few minutes ago. She was getting close and I was getting close. We were defiantly in a big fat tie. It was anyone's game. I closed my eyes for a quick second seeing Fang's face. His olive toned skin, the chunk of hair that flopped over one of his eyes, and those dark eyes…

I shook my head.

_Focus Max_. I told myself again and again. I was getting extremely peeved about how girly I was becoming. I mean is that something you should really be thinking about when you're fighting to save someone? This was most defiantly the Carson person Mr. Chu's wacko jobs had made me coming out. And it was getting freaking annoying.

Running across a sheet of ice with Erasers behind me I unfurled my wings, trying to get into the air. With two large flaps I was two feet off of the ground before I felt a big gloved paw wrap around my leg. "Agh!" I gasped and was thrown hard, onto the ground. Luckily the cushioning of my coat had broken most of the fall. But it still hurt. Unfortunately my wings were not covered. I sucked in my breath, feeling like my wings had shattered into a bazillion little pieces. I rolled onto my back and tried to get up. An Eraser roared, clasping his fists together and punching down, aiming for my head.

I sucked in a breath, and in one swift movement I pushed my body against the ice, sliding away from the Erasers. The Eraser's fist came crashing down on the ice, cracking it, and sending some flying at his face.

"Arrrggghhh." The Eraser growled and shook his head, spit and goop flying out of his mouth.

I pushed up against the ice, barley getting up onto the ice, before breaking into a run. My wings killed and throbbed, making me feel sick. The ice was slippery and it was hard to keep full balance. The large ice pillar with Fang's cage was getting closer. Loosing balance I began sliding uncontrollably. And you know what happened?

I crashed straight into Max2, that's what happened.

She let out a muffled curse, and fell forward and I fell next to her. "Freaking sh--" she cursed. For a split second we looked at each other, reading each other's minds. We needed to work together if we wanted to take the Erasers down.

"Then who ever get there first…" I trailed off. We both nodded and jumped to our feet.

Charging forward at an Eraser I jumped into the air and roundhouse kicked him in the chest. Hard. He staggered back and lost balance too, falling on his butt.

I couldn't help but laugh at the dumb dud look on his face. Without any other hesitation I jumped into another roundhouse kick at him. There was a large crack sound. He let out an agonizing scream and a heave. Then nothing.

A long shiver ran up my spine and my heart stopped for a split second.

I had broken his neck.

Luckily I couldn't see it. It wasn't like his head was on backwards or anything. Well, as far as I could see through my fogged up goggles. With the tips of my gloves and wiping away at the lenses I moved backwards, ready to fight the other Erasers.

They looked at me dumb founded for a minute, then quickly snapping back into action; snapping their jaws and growling.

They were definitely ready to do some serious damage on me. My stomach did flips and was in knots. The Erasers began moving forward, pushing me back until I was back to back with Max2. There was a look of mischief on their faces like this was all funny. Maybe it was funny to sick, twisted, brain washed, mutant morons like Erasers.

Looking over my shoulder and Max2's shoulder I could see seven Erasers. Seven Erasers stood in front of me. Those made a fourteen and counting Eraser take downs in less than an hour, plus saving Fang, plus trying to dodge those stupid machine gun arms of theirs.

Well that would be easy.

_Use their abilities to your advantage Max._ Voice said. This time I was glad the Voice had said something. But use their abilities to your advantage? I thought for a second… Then the idea hit me. Use the machine gun arm of an Eraser and take down as much as possible.

_Also remember this Max. Remember that you are stronger than normal. That is a definite advantage._ Voice added.

_Thanks Voice._ I thought, my hands curling into fists.

_And Max? Remember. When life gives you lemons, which are the Erasers, you make lemonade._ Voice warned.

___Or when Life gives you lemons, squirt them in Life's eye, and see how much Life likes lemons then_. I thought annoyed.

The Erasers chuckled and taunted us, making me angry. But they wouldn't be laughing for long. I thought, smiling to myself.

"Get her!" an Eraser pointed a big hairy finger towards me. Two Erasers charged at me. I planted my feet into the ground, bracing for the impact of a strong Eraser. The Eraser roared (which the Erasers actually do a lot. I mean can they talk normally for once?) and punched at me. I stepped to the right, his punch barley missing my head. In a heartbeat I grabbed his arm, making it snap back. The Eraser cursed, swinging his other fist. It crashed into the side of my head, making me stagger. It throbbed and ached. I swung at the Eraser, missing, and then jumping into a swift scissor kick. I got him in the chest, not really hurting him the way I wanted to. Next was a chop kick, followed by two roundhouse kicks. The Eraser fell to the ground in a matter of seconds. This was getting easy.

I didn't give the second Eraser any time to react. I punched him in the snout, and then dug my elbow into his neck. He roared in my ear (see? Roaring again -_-), grabbing my hood and throwing me backwards into a pile of snow.

I heaved, trying to catch my breath and getting to my feet. I pressed my palm to my ear for a second before the hearing came back. The Eraser came and kicked me in the ribs with his steal toed boot. I sucked in my breath, trying to ignore the pain, sinking to my knees. A couple of ribs were defiantly broken.

The Eraser laughed and turned around. Mistake one. Then he started to shake from laughing so much. Mistake two. He began walking forward to high five one of his buddies. Mistake three.

I got to my feet and charged the Eraser, kicking him in the back with so much force; he froze for a second and fell face first into the snow. He slowly got up and shook the snow off of his head and turned around just in time to see my boot smack right into his face.

The other five Erasers came at me with full force. I flew to the side to where an Eraser laid on his face dead. Picking up his heavy machine gun arm I aimed for an Eraser. Studying the arm I looked for how to shoot. There the corner was a small manual trigger than any human eye might have missed. I aimed again and then shot. The bullet flew out in with a large pop sound and hit the Eraser.

He growled and cursed me out, falling down.

One after another I got the rest of the Erasers. Wiping sweat off of my forehead I looked for Max2.

My heart stopped.

There she was flying to Mackenzie's cage.

New anger filled my body, heating me up even more. Jumping up and running as fast as I could. Lifting into the air I flapped my wings hard to get to Max2.

_Come on! Come on!_ I thought to myself, urging to go faster.

She was getting closer and closer. Finally I extended my arms and grabbed her shoe, pulling her away. I began dragging her into the air. She grabbed at me and punched me in the jaw and I punched her back. We were a mess of tangled wings and coats and weren't able to fly anymore. We began falling to the ground. I tired to pull away but she had a good grip on me.

We both slammed into the ground hard, making snow fly everywhere, chunks of ice pelting us. Blood gushed out of my nose, I had fresh scrapes on my face, and my lip was busted.

We both jumped to our feet at the same time. I stood across from her with my hands curled into fists, ready to fight.

"Well Max," Max2 spat, "This is it. It's either you or me. It's either Fang or Mackenzie."

I narrowed my eyes, looking at her then up at the ice pillars a few feet away.

"Fight?" she said, reading my thoughts. I didn't say anything.

"I have a better idea." I said, straightening up and walking towards her. She looked at me for a second, like I was about to attack her.

She calmed down a little bit and walked towards me. I leaned in and whispered in her ear, knowing somewhere Marian or Mr. Chu was watching us, listening to us.

So what is this big idea you ask?

Yeah. Like I'm gonna tell you.

* * *

Everyone sat in their cages quietly, but there was a lot of tension in the air. "Geez! I can't just sit here this long!" Nudge complained, slamming her fists into the bottom of her cage. It stung a little bit but she ignored the pain. This was taking too long! Where was Max and how was Fang?!

Iggy sat quietly, his face muscles tense, his senses on high allert. Something was definaltley wrong here, he knew it. Something bad was going to happen. Emma and Haley were both talking to each other, asking what had happened and how they were doing. It had been a long time since they had seen each other.

"Who were you with?" Haley wondered, brushing some hair out of her face. Emma sat back against the bars, rubbing her sore back and spoke, "I was with Mackenzie. We were looking for you when we saw the others get killed. A bunch of those Eraser things had chased us into this patch of woods. I don't know what happened but I guess there was a bomb or something in one of the trees. It went of near us and sent us flying. Some how we got separated." she stopped and looked up Haley, wondering if she should go on.

"Go on, did you get hurt?" the Gasman asked. Emma looked at him surprised and then smiled.

"No Gasman, I didn't get hurt," she assured, "But an Eraser got me. I was with them for a while until one night I escaped. Lived up in the mountains for a couple of days with some hawks. When I had to move again the Erasers found me and well brought me here." she shrugged.

Haley was quiet, trying to digest this. The Gasman looked over at Emma and then whistled.

"Wow. How'd you escape?" he sounded so interested.

Emma shook her head, "I'd rather not talk about it. Let's just say, there was a lot of blood."

"Oh." the Gasman shook his head, his stomach feeling queasy.

Angel jolted up from her sleep and looked up at everyone, "Someone is coming!" she whispered. Everyone was on high alert. Ready to break someones arm if they had to.

"What's gonna happen?" Nudge whispered so quietly only their extreme hearing could pick it up. Angel shrugged looking over at Nudge with a somewhat scared expression on her face. There was a low beeping sound and the red light above the door flashed green. The big double doors swung open slowly, letting some light in. They shielded their eyes, trying to make out the shape of a woman pushing a cart. Everyone mouths began to water. They could smell food. But they could also smell antiseptic, sterile equipment.

The whitecoat pushed the cart slowly to their cages, talking into her blue-tooth.

"Yes ma'am. Yeah. I'll give it to them after. Okay--what? Oh okay I got it." she said. She stopped a few feet away, walking over and unlocking Iggy's cage. Everyone held their breath, watching as she pulled him out, attaching something that looked like a metal cuff to his wrist and walking him over to the cart. Iggy turned himself to the flock, trying to give them an assuring look.

The whitecoat cleared her throat, "Look at me!" she snapped when Iggy turned to the opposite direction of her.

"Uh did you read your clipboard thingy? Hello I'm kinda blind. My looking skills aren't the best if you know what I mean." Iggy said, folding his arms over his chest. The whitecoat looked up at him for a second then grumbled something. She picked up her clipboard and scrolled down the list for something.

"Okay then. Name your skills." she said.

"Hm," Iggy rubbed his chin, "Well I make the best omelets, well cause I'm the only one who can really cook out of the flock. Max sucks! My singing is the bomb well not compared to the Gasman who can sing exactly like Elvis Presley but waay better than Max--Max connot sing. There is not such thing as half singing in the shower. I mean either you're a rockstar or you suck. Oh and I can whistle _Eye of the Tiger_ really good," he stopped and thought for a second, "That's about it." he shrugged.

The whitecoat looked at him half dumbfounded, half wanting to punch him in the face. She took a deep breath, fixing her glasses. "Okay then. Do you have any skills that we programmed you?" she tried again, carefully wording the question.

Iggy shook his head, "Did you just not hear what I said? How did you even graduate college? Seriously."

She rubbed her temples, glaring at the flock, who were trying to smother their laughter. "Well then, okay. Do you see--well smell that? That's food," she looked over at Iggy with a triumphant expression. The side of his mouth lifted up and he was drooling. "There is only one way to get that food," she grabbed his arm, "Blood." Without any other word she inserted a three inch needle in a vein in his forearm. Iggy looked blankly at the wall in front of him, trying not to show any hint of weakness.

After the small vile was filled she took the needle out and filed it under his serial number, "There. Now that wasn't so bad. Here is your food. Come on." she led him to his cage, holding a tray of normal looking food. There was a salad, chiken, potatoes, fruit, water, and a small bag of gummies. The smell made Iggy drool and jump at the food. The whitecoat opened his cage and waited for him to climb in. He got inside quickly and didn't hit or bump into anything. The whitecoat set the tray down and swung the door closed.

She wipped her hands on her khanki pants, mumbling something to herself. Going back to the cart and reading the chart, she looked for the next number. She rubbed the back of her neck, clearly not liking what she was doing, and walked over to Nudge's crate. Nudge looked over at Angel, who gave her a sweet reassuring smile, and got out slowly. The whitecoat didn't wait and shut the door, almost getting Nudge's wings in the proccess.

"Hey watch it!" Nudge snapped. She stretched her arms and legs, feeling good, and walked behind the whitecoat. The whitecoat picked up the clipboard and looked over at everything.  
"Skills." she said blankly. Nudge tapped her lip with her finger and thought.

"Um hello my fashion sense! The best! Max says I could be ,like, a model one day if I really wanted to. But I'm not sure. Well I guess I could be one...I could rock fashion week in Paris with my wings! Hello! I would be like this one girl Tyra Banks. I don't know who she is but she is everywhere... Oh and I can sing really good too! My flying is good. I can-um-oh! I can make lasers shoot out of my eyes!"

The whitecoat leaned in, her eyes wide, "Really?"

Nudge snorted a laugh, "Uh no! Gosh. I wish though."


	32. Chapter 32

**Hey. Sorry it took such a long time to update. Oh wow. 73 reviews! Close to 100. Come on lets make it 100! Only 27 more comments! Enjoy the chapter. I will try to get the next chapter up as fast as i can. **

**

* * *

**

"What the hell are they doing?!?!?!?" Mark Atineza asked frustrated. He rubbed the back of his neck and paced around his office, looking up at the monitors that were supposed to be showing Maximum Ride and Maximum Ride 2.0, then to Marian. She leaned back in against the metal chair, holding a clipboard, looking at the monitors and groaning.

"something to make me pissed." she grumbled, silently counting to ten in her head.

Max and Max2 had hid somewhere in the ice. Somewhere were the cameras, not even the infrared cameras could pick them up. It was brilliant...but also a big pain.

"Well what are we going to do?"Mark Atineza urged, finally sitting down at his desk. "Do you know how much money it takes this to make it function. It's almost about to be four hours. Four hours equals a lot." he went on and on about shutting it down and trying it again except with others.

Finally Marian couldn't stand it anymore. He just need to shut up. She got up out of her chair quickly and looked up at him, "Will you _shut up_? Don't you see that there are more important things than money? Are are you so damn hard headed that you don't see all the valuable information coming from _this. _With this information we could do so much more!"

Both Maximum Ride's had gone into hiding for almost five hours.

Five hours.

That was way over their deadline! But Marian had insisted to keep this going. She wouldn't let this test top.

"What are we going to do then Marian? Huh? Just wait here while those two mutant girls just sit there? For all we know they could be laying somewhere dead. And what about the two in the cages? What about them? If we loose them then that would be for nothing. Four less merchandise! Four less deals--" Mark Atienza kept on going.

Marian let out a low growl and mark stopped. She gave him this death stare, not something that he had seen before, something that sent a shiver down his spine. Like someone took ice water and pourned it down his spine. And he didn't like that one bit.

"I just--I just want to make sure," he finished and looked back up at the screen. Marian rolled her eyes, raking her hand through the bangs that fell around her face, and sat back down.

* * *

_So you guys got everything right? _Angel sent her thoughts to all of the bird kids sitting in cages around her. Everyone nodded their head slowly, trying to look casual.

Max had contacted her a few hours ago. She needed them to help to save Fang and save Mackenzie. She needed the Gasman and Iggy to make their bombs, she needed Nudge to extract information and pull metal, and she needed the help of a little mind reading/controlling bird kid.

She needed them to break out and shut down the cold.

Max wanted the flock to break out and attack the whitecoats who were operating the Arctic course. She wanted them to shut it off and do as much damage as she could to the security, the weaponry, the computers, and then escape the School. To go as far away as they could from the School and hopefully meet up in Los Angeles.

* * *

Angel took a deep breath going over the plan.

Iggy and the Gasman were secretly working on the bombs. Emma had done this weird trick thing to the camera that made it that who ever watching think that the flock was sleeping, or talking about random things. They couldn't hear or see what they were actually saying or doing.

It was super cool.

Haley and Nudge were on the look out for whitecoats who might decide to pay them a little visit.

"Almost done...." the Gasman whispered, poking around at some wires he had ripped out of the iPhone Iggy handed him.

_Where exactly did Iggy get the iPhone?_ Angel thought for a second. But she shrugged.

No idea. He could've had to for weeks, days, or he could've picked it off of the whitecoat who had come in earlier to take blood samples when she wasn't looking.

"And there you go," the Gasman picked up the little iPhone box and handed it to Iggy, who attached another piece to it. Iggy healed up the box, so everyone could bask in it's glory. It was a little bigger than his hand, with chunks of gray and black metal, with a small scope sicking off the top and two buttons on the side.  
"This has a lazer that can go through the bars and when we are done with that, it's a bomb. And," he picked up small gray cubes with red and blue wires poking out of them, "Smaller bombs for destroying the other things. I call it the _Terminator_." He sounded so proud.

"And you did all of that with one iPhone?" Haley questioned, sounding a little skeptical.

"Who said I only had one cellphone with me?" Iggy shrugged. Haley looked at him for a second, then shrugged in defeat.

Nudge looked at the door for a second and turned to everyone, "So," she lowered her voice, "When do we do this?"

"I say now. What do you think?" Emma looked over at Angel, then to Iggy, "Oh uh I'm talking to you too Iggy." she cleared her throat, pushing some blond hair out of her face and behind her ear. He thought for a second.

"We need to first get out of these cages," he began, "Keep whatever you did going so the whitecoats don't send a bunch of Erasers after us. And then sneak out," he turned in the direction of Angel's cage, looking at the bars instead of her, "If anyone comes you need to use your mind control and you know, make them think that we're just a bunch of whitecoats walking along. okay?"

Angel nodded then remembered that Iggy couldn't see, "Yeah."

"Nudge, you need to use your whole computer thing and find out where to go and find that place they have Max and Fang. You're coming with me after that to the Arctic place. Gazzy, you need to go with Haley and take some bombs, planting them outside the control rooms. Emma and Angel, you guys do the same thing--"

"Hey! Did you forget the dog?!" Total cut in.

"No. You are going with Angel." he replied.

"Okay then! And when like we do that we all get out of the nearest exit, fly out and head towards L.A. We can find each other in the air. Max and Fang won't be far behind." Nudge added. Iggy nodded and smiled.

"Well.... Then get me out of this freaking cage!" the Gasman grabbed at the bars and pulled at him, expecting them to break off. Iggy didn't say anything and pulled out the _Terminator, _the Gasman shrunk to the back of his cage and waited.

Iggy steadied his arm and pressed the bottom to get the Lazar working. A reddish yellow ray escaped from somewhere and hit the bars. Smoke came up as the ray break through the bars. Iggy stopped and waited for the Gasman to break off the rest.

The Gasman kicked at the pieces of metal that hung around and blocked the way out. "Oh sweet freedom!" he sang, crawling out and stretching his arms, legs, and wings. Iggy leaned back in his cage and sighed, "Oh am I good or am I good?"

The Gasman chuckled, "Um none? Okay anyway I think I can get everyone else out, Ig."

Iggy just shrugged.

"Ohmigod! Get me out of this cage!" Nudge squealed and motioned for the Gasman to open her cage's lock. The Gasman moved across the room, unlocking her cage, and moved on to Angel's cage.

"Thanks Gazzy!" Angel crooned, touching her toes and moving her neck this way and that to get the knots out. She fixed her shirt, walking to Total's cage, and opening it. A couple of minutes later everyone was out of their cages and stood in a circle.

"Alright," Iggy said in his Max-leader voice, "We all know the plan. Come on lets get out of here."

They began creeping past cages and cages that were empty, some of them having a dead experiment or two. They moved quickly and quietly through the almost pitch black to the giant double doors. The small two foot by two foot windows on each doors brought in the only light. Nudge moved up and typed in a code into the keypad. 07-17-96. The red light that was on the keypad turned green and the doors slowly swung open. White fluorescent light spilled into the room. Everyone, minus Iggy, squinted, their eyes adjusting to the light.

"And action." Nudge whispered.

* * *

Okay. You wanna know what my plan is now? Well if you don't then you're going to hear it anyway. If you do then well good for you.

I wasn't ready to save Fang or not save Fang and have to go back and sit in a little dog crate, get tested on more, and talk to the wack-job scientist who can't get over the fact that I am not her real daughter. I wasn't ready to loose anyone.

So my plan?

1. Contact the flock. Check.

2. Iggy and the Gasman (the amazing kids they are) needed to some how make bombs or weapons. With them, the flock and Haley's flock would have to get out their cages.

3. They needed to destroy the security and stuff. Then come down and destroy the controls for this whole Arctic Course thing

4. In all of the destruction that would be going on, me and Max2 would get Fang and Haley

5. The Flock would escape and head towards L.A. where we would meet up

6. Somehow Max2, Fang, Mackenzie, and I would escape too.

7. We fly to L.A. and all meet up.

See! This wasn't one of my usual, not so- planned- out -plan! Oh how I am growing.

To buy time for the flock to do what they have to do, me and Max2 retreated. We flew about five to six hundred feet away from the place Fang and Mackenzie were. Finding this ice cave that went into a little tunnel, we went in there and are hiding in it.

So what does that mean?

Marian or anyone else can't find us with the cameras or the infrared cameras.

That's what it means.

* * *

"How much longer do you think it will take?" Max2 asked impatiently. She looked up at me then to the small opening a few feet away where the ice tunnel led to another ice made cave and then to the outside.

"I have no idea. But don't worry," I tried to reassure her, "It won't take long."

Max2 moved her legs around, trying to let as comfortable as she could. Irritated she punched a chunk of ice, making the chunks break off and hit me in the face. "Hey watch it!" I growled. We had been sitting in here for, who knows how long. And we were tired, hungry, claustrophobic/super twitchy and really really irritated.

I was actually surprised with myself. I hadn't blown up yet. A first.

Today was a whole day of firsts.

Whoohoo...

"Whatever." Max2 rolled her eyes, leaning her head back,closing her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest as best as she could from the bulk of the coat and breathed a heavy sigh.

"I think my feet might need to get amputated. I can't feel anything anymore." I looked at my right foot, trying so hard to move it. But nothing would happen. My boots, my socks, and my feet were drenched.

"You too?" Max2 opened one eye and looked over at me.

"Yes. And don't go to sleep Max." I said when she let out a huge yawn and closed her eyes. She opened her eyes warily, rubbing her face with a piece of ice, probably trying to wake herself up.

_Do not worry Max. Worrying will burn too much energy. Just try to relax. But do not fall asleep._ Voice echoed in my head.  
Just as my eyes fluttered open and close the Voice poked in. And I was glad. Something annoying was perfect to keep me up. And not worrying? That might be a little bit of a problem. I took a deep breath, trying to clear my head and focus on my breathing and staying awake.

_Good Max. But remember to be on guard. _Voice added.

I mentally rolled my eyes. _Okay you're telling me to relax and be on guard also? Pick one._

_I pick both, Max, relax and be on guard. _Voice replied.

* * *

"I found the map!" Nudge half whispered, her eyes scanning the screen that had map after map popping up on the screen.

"Excellent." Gazzy punched the air, walking over and looking over her shoulder.

The flock had sneaked into a random room. It was probably some kind of lounge. There was a mini fridge next to the sink, with a coffee maker, microwave, and a small Cd player. A metal table with two wooden chairs sat in the middle of the gray carpeting and a computer in the back. They kept the lights off, turning one computer on.

"We're here," Nudge pointed to the screen, "The security and main control rooms are over here and over here. Both on the first floor." The glow of the screen set a shadow across her choclate face.

"Okay," Iggy said, "Go on."

"Well," Nudge was silent for a moment, "Ah ha! There is this big thing underground. Like where they do the main experimenting."

Emma pointed to the underground area that was highlighted in blue,"I think that's where they took me, Mackenzie, and Max, well your Max--Max2 to get our first testing. That is probably they all are. It's pretty big though. I mean like four miles long all together."She sounded disappointed.

"But look," Total hopped up onto Nudge's lap, "Here is a giant control room for it. Look," he pointed a hairy paw to a pink highlighted box that read "Main Expiramentation Faculity" and read the discription, "Controls weather, cameras, doors, exits, and features added."

Iggy rubbed his chin, "Me and Nudge will take that place. Angel and Emma can take the main security and control rooms cause they've got the power jackpots and can do the most damage." Angel giggled and held onto Iggy's hand, squeezing it.

"On the third floor," Haley started, "There are three control rooms. The Gasman and I can take those. And by my guess there are windows. So we can get out somwhere. If not then we'll have to either find one of make one."

"I'd like to make one," the Gasman grinned, raking his hair through his long blond hair and looked up angelically. Haley let out a small laugh.

"Oh I don't know..OH MY GOD!" a man's voice came from behind them.

Everyone froze.

Behind them stood two whitecoats. They looked at the flock with dumbfounded expressions, which quickly turned into mad scowls.

"Sec--" one shouted but stopped when Angel came and walked up in front of them. She pushed some blond curls out of her face, looking calmly at the whitecoats.

"We are not here. We are just chairs." Angel slowly began.

"You are not there. You are just chairs." the whitecoats repeated, in a hypnotic trance.

"Now," Angel sweetly chirpped, "You will go back to where you were and forget about coming here. You have nothing in this room that you need."

The whitecoats repeated her exact words, turning around automatically. They walked like robots to the door and shutting it hard behind them.

"Ohmigod Angel! So close..." Nudge breathed, "Life saver."

Angel grinned, "No problem."

Iggy cut in, "Okay. Okay. Focus guys. Alright, are there any other places we need to blow up?"

Nudge turned around and looked over the maps, "Umm. Nope. Wait--oh yeah. One right on the fourth floor. Ohh, it's that Mark Atienza dude's office. Remember him? That guy who is the new Director of Itex," She looked up at the others, "I don't think we need to bomb that place. We might get stuck there or worse."


	33. Chapter 33

**Like I said, almost 100 comments! almost the end of part two. what do you think of part three? any ideas or suggestions? The whole story still has a long way to go though. =)**

**

* * *

**

Iggy and Nudge slowly walked down the white halls quietly, on guard for any whitecoats or Erasers that might be coming that way.

"Which way?" Iggy whispered when they reached two the end of the hall. Nudge looked down at the map she had printed off.

"This way." she grabbed his hand and puled him down a second hall way. She let go and he followed close behind her. They moved as fast as they could without making too much noise. The squeak of their sneakers on the newly cleaned linoleum floor sounded too loud and the sound of them breathing was even louder. It was like a siren giving off where they were. Not good for people trying to sneak around/go unnoticed/avoid threats.

They walked past rows and rows of doors, carts stacked with medicine, syringes,and medical equipment.

"Ohmigod! My nose, my nose," Nudge cupped her hands over her nose when they passed a spill of floor cleaner. The smell made her nose sting and painful memories from when she was younger came rushing back. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to shut away those memories and focus.

"You okay?" Iggy asked her when he heard her faint whimper.

Nudge gulped in a deep breath, "Yes. It's nothing. Really.."

_GOD! Snap into it Nudge! No time to be a big baby. Focus._ She snapped at herself.

"Wait stop!" Iggy breathed. He could hear the clicking of a woman's heels down the hallway. Nudge pushed the door of a room that said hall closet, pulling Iggy in. He stumbled, falling onto a bucket. He cursed under his breath but didn't say anything else.

"Yes. I know! Those two idiot experiments went into hiding somewhere in the ice. I bet they just went and died." the two of them could make out the muffled sound of a woman talking. Nudge narrowed her eyes. That stupid whitecoat was talking about Max.

The woman stood around somewhere close for a while, talking to some person named Rick.

_God Lady! GO AWAY! _Nudge screamed in her head. She took a step back, her shoe hitting a bucket, making a quiet sound. Nudge bit her lip and mentally kicked herself. Iggy shook is

"Wait a second Rick. I thought I heard something." the whitecoat looked into the frosted window. Nudge held her breath, shirking back behind mops and brooms. The whitecoat looked in for a second, searching for something out of the ordinary. Nudges heart beat faster and the sound of it beating blocked out any other sound.

_Go away. Go away. _Nudge repeated again and again in her head, hoping that it would make her go away.

"Okay Rick. It was nothing. You know, me just being paranoid. Aha. Anyway I am coming to the control room for the Experimental Facility anyway."

After a long ten minutes the whitecoat finally left. Iggy got up, pulling the bucket that was stuck to his butt off and placing it gently down on the ground. He moved over to the door, pressing his ear to the door and listening.

"I can't hear her anymore. Nobody is coming down." Iggy finally said. He slowly turned the door knob and walked out into the hallway, listening carefully for anybody who might be coming. They began walking quickly down the hall.

They took a right, then a left, another right, then a right again. They wound around from hallway to hallway and down stair and more stairs.

* * *

"This way Haley." the Gasman whispered. They stopped at the end of the hallway, looking over the edge to see if anyone was coming. It was clear. One side led to a wall with two elevators and a door to stairs. The other side led to more hallways and more rooms.

"Let's take the stairs." Haley pushed the door open and ran up the steps, the Gasman right behind her. She skipped every other step to get up faster. There were tons of steps. The School was a pretty big place. It took a minute to get to the second floor in the elevator.

"Do you think we could just fly?" the Gasman stopped. Haley stopped and thought for a second, shaking her head.

"I don't think it's a good--wait you know what. Never mind. Good idea. Come on." she pulled off her black leather jacket, revealing a red tank top and white wings. Slowly she stretched them, feeling the air go in between her feathers. It felt good to stretch them after a while of being couped up in a little dog crate/cage. She jumped up a few feet and flew forward, jolting forward on the down stroke.

In a matter of seconds they were getting farther up. "Land!" Haley shouted to the Gasman. An Eraser had came out of nowhere! He ran up the stairs fast, snapping his jaws and drooling. The Gasman flew in a wide arc dropping down onto the Erasers back. He wrapped his arms around the Eraser's neck and squeezed them. He tried to choke him. The Eraser gagged for a second, trying to grab at the Gasman.

Haley came down, landing in front of him and getting ready to fight. She jumped and roundhouse kicked the Eraser in the chest then punching at his mouth. She missed. The Eraser jumped around, moving this way and that trying to shake the Gasman off of his back. But Gazzy wouldn't let go. He just wrapped his arms around tighter.

"Let go!" the Eraser growled. He pulled one big paw up at him back and dug his nails into Gazzy's leg. The Gasman let out a whimper, feeling a sharp pain in his muscle. But he didn't stop. The Eraser dug his claws deeper. Finally the Gasman had to let go. The Eraser grabbed him by his shoes and threw him backward.

The Gasman sucked in a breath as he hit the cement steps. His wings ached and his back throbbed. He could feel the warm blood going down his leg and soaking the bottom of his jeans. He held his leg and rocked back and forth trying to calm down.

The Eraser turned around and faced the Gasman, looking down at him, ready to finish him off. He lifted his leg above the Gasman's head. Gazzy couldn't move. For some reason, then, there, his legs and arms they didn't want to work. He squeezed his eyes shut, not wanting to look.

"Arrgghhhh!!!!!" Haley let out a roar, running forward and tackling the Eraser with all of her strength before he could finish the Gasman off. The Eraser lost balance, and began falling down the stairs, Haley clung to him. She punched him in the throat again and again, showing no mercy. She didn't care if the Eraser lived or not. She just wanted him dead. She wanted payback.

"Haley! Stop! He's dead!!!" the Gasman tried getting up. Now his body decided to function. -_-

Haley turned to look at him, a raging look in her eyes that sent a shiver down her spine. The Gasman had seen that look only a handful of times. One was when Max was fighting Ari when they were taking Angel away. The other times were of Max also. When Max was acting all leader-ish. She was like a mother bear protecting her cubs. Extremely dangerous.

"Haley?" he whimpered, almost scared.

When he said her name a second time, this look came across her face, and she snapped out of it. She looked confused at him, like she was in a trance. "What the?" she got to her feet quickly, looking down at the dead Eraser. "Oh my God. Come on." she grabbed the Gasman by his arms, picking him up and trying to get him to his feet. "Are you okay? Can you stand up?" she asked.

Gazzy healed onto Haley with one hand, testing his legs. "Yes."

"Good." she nodded.

* * *

"Angel! Here's the first place." Emma pointed down the hall to a room that said "restricted". Angel leaned over and looked.

"Great." Total whispered, his tail wagging fiercely.

"Who's gonna but the little bomb?" Angel asked both of them. Emma looked from Total to Angel, pulling the bomb out of her pocket and studying it.

"I think you should," she gave the bomb to Angel, "You can do your whole mind control thing. Tell the whitecoats to get out and go somewhere else, like the bathrooms and then put the bomb in there. Then set the time for twenty minutes and we can put the others. So then they go off at the same time!"

Angel didn't look up at her, playing around with the little bombs in her hand delicately. "Okay but," she nodded to the map Emma was holding, "Next you're getting--wait--uh-mm--never mind. I'll do all of them, you guard the outside and make sure they didn't alert anyone else. Everyone should know what is going on when there are booms."

"Got it," Emma let out a deep breath, "Go on."

Angel didn't say anything after that, just began walking to the door slowly. She was scared and nervous. Her heart was beating fast and the hand she had the bombs in was sweaty. She took a deep breath when she was outside of the door. Slowly she opened it.

It was busy. She looked to see whitecoats sitting at monitors and typing things into computers. Everyone stopped and turned to face her. One whitecoat gasped. Angel recognized her from earlier. She had taken blood from Angel when the other whitecoat quit (Nudge was the last straw in harassing).

"I am not here." Angel said in her calm hypnotic voice. The whitecoats all stopped, turning around it face her, looking into her eyes.

"You are not here." they all said in unison.

"You all will leave this room. Leave and go into the bathrooms, lock the doors, and stay there for an hour." she continued.

They all repeated.

"You won't remember anything after this. After the hour. Nobody is in the hallway." Angel finished, remembering that Emma and Total were waiting in the hallway for her.

"We won't remember anything after this. After the hour. Nobody is in the hallway." the whitecoats finished. Angel stepped aside as all of the whitecoats headed for the doors, acting casual, not like robots, or little seven year old mutant bird kid mind control victims.

Angel ran over to a huge wall full of moniors, screens of all kinds, and keypads, keyboards, and buttons galore. She might need another bomb. Right? She thought for a second. With the bombs the Gasman and Iggy made, there is no telling how much juice was in them. They could be super small, yet bring a huge explosion.

"One would be okay." Angel told herself. She looked around for where to put it. Placing it in the middle of everything, Angel turned the dial that said "Twenty" and then "Min". There was a ticking sound and Angel sprinted out of the room, pushing aside chairs and carts. She burst through the door, running over to Emma and Total.

"Come on," she huffed, "It's set for twenty minutes. We need to go."

"Right." Total agreed. They all began running down the linoleum tiled hallways, opening up the map to see where to go next. Angel went into the next room, placing a bomb in there and getting all of the whitecoats out.

* * *

When the first explosion went off everyone went into a panic mode. When the second and third explosions went off, people were running and screaming.

All of the security systems and cameras were blown to bits. There were giant holes in them!

Noody knew who had set off the explosions.

"There has been a huge explosion in the Main Expiramental Facility!" Dr. Seroine told Marian, "All of the settings and controls! Everything is destroyed! The Arctic Cource is warming itself up to get ready for the next--whatever--we are going to do!" she was shaking, her clipboard shaking. The side of her lapcoat was charred and black, she was near the explosion when it happened.

_Freecssshhhh booooooommmmmmm!!!!!!!!!! _

There was a loud bang sound and screaming.

Another room, another security room, gone. The alarms began ringing. The doors automatically locked.

* * *

"Did you hear that?!?!" Max2 asked me, excitment coating her voice. I sat up and listened. It was the sound of a homemade bomb going off, the sound of more than one homemade bomb going off. Iggy and Gazzy's homemade bombs going off! I pushed myself up onto my knees and began to crawl out of the ice tunnel and the ice cave.

Coming out into the white snow I saw that there was water everywhere. The snow was melting. It was getting hotter. The tempeatures were warming up and this Arctic Tundra was melting down.

"I don't think we will really need these anymore," Max took off her wintercoat, standing in only a gray zip up jacket that was half opened to reveal a red t-shirt that said "Bite Me". She extended her wings, clumps of snow falling off of her feathers. She shook them out good.

I did the same. It felt good to walk around not feeling like a wet marshmellow. I unfulred my wings, shaking them out. We both began running forward in the snow and water. Throwing ourselves in the air we got higher as we flapped our wings. It felt good to feel the wind making my feathers expand and make me feel weightless.

Finally we were like bullets in the air, travelling fast. I extended my arms in front of me, flapping harder and hader. The still standing ice pillars Fang was at came into view and I felt a new rush of hope. Max2 came up beside me, we looked at each other for a second, and then focused our attention back on who we needed to save.

We were getting so close! I needed to move faster! I needed to GET TO FANG!

Moving past the large fenced gate I was flying upward to the cage.

This was it.

* * *

"Fang! Fang!" I shouted when I reached the top of the ice pillar, hovering in front of Fang's cage. He stirred, looking up at me, surprised. Then getting up onto his kneels and crawling over and wrapping his hands around the bars of the cage. He was shaking, and looked like crap. He had almost nothing on. There was a look in his eyes that showed me he was holding on.

This sent a new wave of rage and fury through my body. They did this to him...

"Max." he whispered my name. I blnked back tears, getting annoyed that I was feeling so darn emostional. "Max!" he shouted my name, smiling. Smiling like I had never seen him before in my life, it sent a rush through me.

"G-get back." I told him, gripping the bars of the cage.

"Max are you sure? This is--" he began but I cut him off.

"Don't worry," I assured him, "I can break it."

He looked a little reluctant for a second, but scooted back and wait. I gripped it tight, and pulled as hard as I could. I pulled again and again. There was a low creaking sound of the metal bending before the door snapped off. I held it in my hands for a second, looking at Fang, who had a somewhat surprised expression on his face.

"Can you fly?" I asked, dropping the cage down and watching it fall and dissapear in a pile of snow.

"I think so," Fang crawled out of his cage, till he was at the edge. He scooted over the edge and began falling. I swooped down to make sure he would be okay. Unfurling his wings he tested them for a second, then swooping to the side just in time before hitting the snow. He was flying awkwardy and I had to keep close just incase he couldn't fly anymore.

I laughed, beaming at him. He looked up and smiled again.

We flew over to where Max2 was waiting with Mackenzie. "You okay?" I asked Mackenzie and she nodded.

"Yes. I mean besides cold." she rolled her eyes and laughed.

There was a loud rumbling sound of a motor. I turned around to see what it was. The wall in front of us began to shake and then began to seperate. Snow and ice dropped everywhere, some of it hitting us. The ground below us began to shake, the ice pillars began to shake.

"Look out!" Fang called when the pillars began to fall over. I grabbed him by the arm, pulling him to the side to dodge the first one that began to fall and then up, to avoid the second one. Max2 did the same.

"The wall! It's a door! The exit! Come on!" Max2 told me. Her voice was muffled from the low rumble coming from the doors opening, but I could tell what she was saying. We all began flying to where the doors stood completly opened.


	34. Chapter 34

****

Hey! Well this is chapter 34 (obviously)

* * *

Mr. Chu was furious. He had received a phone call from Mark Atineza about what had happened. Mr. Chu knew who did it. It was Maximum Ride. It was.

**

* * *

**(Max2 POV)

"Come on!" I shouted.

We ran up flights and flights of stairs, feeling extremely tired. There wasn't enough room for us to fly and the elevators were not working because of the bombs that had gone off made them go into auto lock. So more running it is.

Max's plan was going great. I had Mackenzie back and she had her Fang. All we needed to do now was get the heck out of the School. There was smoke coming from somewhere. By my guess we were getting close to the control room of the Arctic place and a huge bomb had been set off in there.

"_Ugh ugh hagh_." We all coughed our lungs out from the smoke but kept on going. Red light from the emergency lights led the way up the stairs. Who knew how much we had more to go. We could be walking-running- up the stairs for another ten minutes before reaching the ground floor.

* * *

Everyone had gotten out of the School in one piece. They had all found each other somewhere in the air, headed for L.A. They had travelled far enough. They couldn't see the School anymore.

"This was freaking awesome!" the Gasman hollered, slapping Iggy and air high five. "They had like no idea this was gonna happen!" he cheered.

"That was--like---I don't know. Something I have never experienced before,"Haley commented, "Is it always like this with you guys? I mean is that how you escaped the School first?"

"Well," Nudge came in, "The first first time was Jeb stole us away from the School. The second time was when we were in the yard and about to be Eraser food. Iggy and the Gasman didn't get captured. To save us they brought this army of Hawks from Arizona and we escaped."

"Ohhh," Emma looked surpirsed, "So cool."

Haley looked at the other bird kids, "Yeah. You guys got us out of the Institute. I remember that."

"Mhmm!" Emma smiled.

"Your welcome." Angel smiled at them. They smiled back and everyone coasted on a wind current quietly, enjoying the wind in their hair. "This is heaven." Angel sighed. She closed her eyes, feeling the warm sun on her face.

"You know what?" Total flew over to Angel. She peaked one eye open and looked over at him,

"Yeah?"

"I just realized," he paused, "That Akila probably had her puppies. And I wasn't there." he sounded kind of sad. Angel extended her arm and scratched him behind his little black ear.

"Total. It's okay. She understands that you have to do this. Trust me I know."

Total's nose twitched happily, "She does."

"Yeah," Angel went on, "She feels the same way. She still wants to do what she does." Total laughed, wagging his tail.

"Well okay," he sighed, "That's good. I can't wait to see the puppies." Total looked down at the ground, lost in thoughts about how the babies would look or what their names could be. Most of them were Total Jr. And even one of the names was Angel..

She smiled at the thought.

"You think Max and Fang will be here soon?" Nudge asked Iggy. Iggy shrugged.

"They should be. Don't worry Nudge."

* * *

"Ella?"

Dr. Martinez knocked on Ella's door, opening it just enough to peak her head in the door. Ella was laying on her bed, typing things on her laptop.

"Ella?" Dr. Martinez said her name again. Ella looked up, shutting the screen and sitting up.

"Yeah?"

Dr. Martinez walked in, closing the door gently behind her, "Whatcha doing?"

"Oh nothing," Ella shrugged, "Just tweeting on Twitter, I was working on my story on Fan Fiction."

Dr. Martinez nodded, smiling, coming over and sitting down next to Ella. "Ella. I'm sorry I didn't tell you about what had happened to Max. I just--I just thought that--that you would--I don't know--be really sad and depressed. And then you were so excited about the dogs. I don't know. I was weak. Just weak."

Ella rested her head on her mom's shoulder, "It's okay Mom. I understand--kinda. And don't worry. Max'll be okay. You don't worry." she giggled.

"You're so right El." she laughed.

* * *

**Yeah I know this was a short chapter. Kinda supposed to be the conclusion of Part 2. CHAPTER 35 WILL BE UP SOON! I WILL TRY TO UPDATE AS FAST AS I CAN ;) COMMENT! COMMENT! COMMENT! FAV! SUBSCRIBE! COME ON 100 COMMNETS!!!!!!!!!!**


	35. Part 3 :Chapter 35

**OKAY! PLZ DON'T HURT ME!!! I know it's been like A FREAKING MONTH since I have updated. And I don't have an excuse. Just never had time to do it. Sorry :)**

**

* * *

**

_When were the stairs going to end?!_

"Come on! Come on!" I hollered over the screaming sirens, looking over my shoulder at Fang, Max2, and Mackenzie. Taking the stairs was a very bad and stupid idea. First of all they were steep and narrow; there was no room for flying, and the steps were never ending. Second of all, running up stairs while you're practically numb, you're clothes are wet and soggy (making it even harder to run), and you're body decided it doesn't work the way it's supposed to doesn't really help.

I brushed my hands against the concrete walls, trying to keep my balance. I was extremely worn-out and hungry. My stomach clenched and unclenched, doing flips and rolls, wanting food. My throat and my mouth were super dry, making it hard to swallow.

"I hate steps!" Mackenzie hissed, her breath coming out in shallow gasps. I looked over my shoulder at her and couldn't help but smile. But she looked sick; face pale and sweaty, her nose runny, and dark circles ringed around her eyes.

Fang was in the same condition expected there was something else. He—he looked different. I mean un-Fangish.

I don't know.

Maybe he had looked like this before.

I don't remember.

Not all of my memory was back yet (yes I know, isn't that a major setback).

I probably only had half of my memory back.

And thankfully a lot of important information and memories had decided to come back or we'd be in a huge dilemma. But you know that. Well atleast I hope you do…

A couple of minutes later the stairs stopped winding and led to a spooky concrete hallway, a single fluorescent light suspended from the ceiling showing the way to a metal door at the other end of the hallway.

The quiet dripping sound of water and our ragged breathing filled the room. I automatically tensed, eyes fixed on the door. Slowly we began walking towards the door, listening and keeping a look out for anything out of the ordinary.

Max2 came up next to me mouthing, "Do you think this could be a trap." I was just thinking the same thing. This all could be a trap.

I looked from Max2 to the door and back to her, mouthing, "Maybe. Or it could be our door to freedom."

She nodded, probably thinking the same thing I did. We would just have to take our chances. I mean we couldn't just run down a whole bunch of stairs again, was that going to go to waste or something?

I slowly approached the metal door, touching the cool surface.

"Break it down?" Mackenzie looked over Max2's shoulder. There was no handle.

"I think we need to push it open." I pushed against the door. It wouldn't move. Then I pushed harder. The door just creaked and slid open an inch. Then I pushed even harder—with all of my strength (which I must say is a whole lot of force). The door made a loud groan then a creaking sound as I pushed it open.

Light spilled into the hallway and I could feel myself warming up. Heating up…

"Oh my GOD!" Max2 and I breathed in heavy gasps of air. Fang grabbed a hold of my shoulder feeling the same thing.

My skin began burning. _Burning like hell_! The more I opened the door, the more the heat came in from the outside the more my skin was burning.

And I mean burning like my skin was on _fire_. You know like when you're outside playing in the snow and come near heat and you're skin needs to adjust to the heat? And you're skin feels like its burning?

Think of that kind of pain and then magnify by like a hundred.

We were cold and wet from the Arctic course and the hundred degree heat of Death Valley. The immense heat that made you feel like you were on fire.

Ouch. Ouch. Ouch.

One by one everyone began pealing off their large jackets, hats, scarves, gloves, and boots till we all were standing in our sopping wet jeans and shirts. That helped ease the burning a little bit and I could tolerate it. The heat felt good on my frozen feathers, warming them up nicely. That's about it.

"Come on!" I said when everyone was in better shape. I turned to Fang, about to say something, when his eyes fluttered closed. "Fang!" I shouted his name and grabbed a hold of him before he hit the pavement. My heart stopped and I thought I was going to puke. Fang could die from hypothermia. He couldn't go to sleep. I blinked back tears

Mackenzie and Max2 rushed over, helping me get him on the ground. "What happened to him?" Mackenzie asked panicked. My heart sped up and I looked at Fang. "Fang! Fang!" I shook his body, slapping his face to get him to snap out of it. Looking up at Max2 I said, "Come on. Help me get him out of here." She nodded and moved to the other side of Fang.

"Hypothermia?" Max2 looked over at me. I didn't know what to say. Too many emotions and thoughts were floating around that I couldn't think straight. We both lifted him by the arms. I hooked one arm around his waist and Max2 did the same, both of us hooking his arms over our shoulders.

Mackenzie walked in front of us, keeping a close eye out for any Erasers or whitecoats that had noticed that we were missing in all of this chaos. I thought about the flock. Were they safe? Did they make it to California or were Iggy and the Gasman's bombs a total failure?

Luckily the door led outside and we didn't have to go through anymore creepy hallways or pass places the Erasers or whitecoats could nab us. We stepped out into somewhere that seamed like a staff parking lot. I couldn't help but roll my eyes. Evil School with a bunch of mad scientists and mutants also has a staff parking lot. Next thing you know they'll have Casual Friday.

"Find a truck." I told Mackenzie. Max2 and I gently leaned Fang against the building wall.

"You stay with Fang," Max2 said to me when she saw me heading towards a truck. I looked at her, confused at what she was saying, "Stay with Fang and make sure he is okay." My eyebrows rose probably as far as they could go.

"Max2 caring?" I mockingly breathed. She laughed, rolling her eyes and rubbing her forehead with her palm. None of said another word and she headed for an SUV.

I knealed down next to Fang, wishing I could have Angel's ability to read minds and hear his thoughts.

If he was still alive.

No! What was I thinking? Fang was alive. Just unconscious. I couldn't loose Fang. No way. I wouldn't let that happen.

The roar of the SUV engine snapped me back into reality and I looked up to see Max2 slam the hood of the car and running back to me and Fang while Mackenzie climbed in the back.

"Come on." She said and we got Fang up, carrying him and getting him into the backseat. He was leaned against the seat, Mackenzie sitting close enough to support him. Jumping out I quickly ran and climbed into the drivers seat, Max2 climbing into the passengers seat.

Slamming the doors shut, I slammed on the gas, making us jolt forward. The engine purred and I turned, heading for the road. The gate of the entrance/exit was closed. I stopped a few hundred feet away, eyes locked on the metal gate, my hands gripping the steering wheel so hard that it was wet from sweat.

"Max? What are you doing?" Max2 's voice came in a warning tone, like she could read my mind and know what I was thinking.

"Watch out!" Mackenzie and Max2 shouted when I slammed on the gas and sped towards the metal door at 80 mph.

* * *

"Do you think Max and Fang made it out?" the Gasman wondered out loud, loud enough for everyone to hear over the roaring wind at 9,000 ft. up in the air. He sounded scared and small. He sounded like he was eight--now nine(because Angel was seven) years old. The rest of his flock didn't say anything, their wings beating in unison. Finally Total spoke up.

"Of cource they did." he reassured. Nudge nodded warily.

"Yeah Gazzy. I mean it's _Max _and _Fang_." she smiled at him, hoping that would send some relief to Gazzy. Angel flew closer, her blond curls bouncing around her face and nodded. Iggy didn't say anything and he looked lost in thought. His face was tensed up and he squinted, his eyes closed.

"Whatcha thinking about Ig?" Nudge asked casually.

He didn't open his eyes, "Nothing much."

"Oh..." she trailed off. There was a silence between the five of them. Not an awkward one. But a silence that felt peaceful and loving. She couldn't help but watch Emma and Haley talk. They were flying close to each other, wings beating oppositely so they wouldn't hit each other. She couldn't help but wonder what was going through their minds and what they were feeling. She wondered how they were feeling, thinking that they might be the only two out of their flock left. They had seen their other flock members die right in front of them and now one of them was gone.

She knew that she couldn't take it that ever happened to her flock. Her eyes welled with tears and she let them flow out, knowing that nobody would notice. Her eyes were already watering from the rushing wind, why bother wiping them away.

Emma saw her watching and smiled.

She watched Angel fly closer, giving her a sad look knowing what she was thinking. But not because she could read her mind but because she felt the same thing. Everyone did. Everyone was extremely worried about the rest of their flock.

Especially Iggy. He was scared. Actually scared. He was scared that something might happen to Max and Fang and he would have to become leader of the flock. He knew he wasn't ready. But if he had to then he would.

* * *

**Okay there is Chapter 35! Don't worry I will update when I have the chance! Thanks! COMMENT! COMMENT! FAV! SUBSCRIBE!!!!!!!!!!!!**


	36. Chapter 36

**Hey! NEWS ABOUT FANG: A Maximum Ride Novel!!!! Go to Max-Dan-Wiz Website and you can DOWNLOAD A _FREE_-FREE _1 HOUR_PREVIEW OF FANG: A MAXIMUM RIDE NOVEL OFF ITUNES!!!!!! its good! GET IT!!! *(This is for the United States*)Fang: A Maximum Ride Novel comes out March 15, 2010 in the United States.**

* * *

"You're freaking crazy!" Max2 turned and looked at me, her eyes bugged. I ignored her, still basking in the glory that my plan had actually worked. My whole ten minute thought up plan had actually worked. I couldn't believe that we had escaped the School.

"It worked!" Mackenzie cheered. She began laughing hysterically. "I seriously still can't believe it!"

My grin grew even larger. Was it wrong wanting to just stop and do a happy dance? Kind of I know.

We whizzed down a never ending road in the middle of the desert. Nothing out there but sand and occasionally big rocks and tumble weed. By my guess it was about noon and we were cooking inside the car now. The whole burning skin episode had passed and we had the air conditioner blasting. The plus side was that our clothes were pretty much dry.

I glanced in the rear view mirror back at Fang. He still wasn't up. All of a sudden I felt a ten ton weight on my shoulders. He looked so peaceful, too peaceful.

"Don't worry Max." Max2 said to me when she saw me looking at Fang. I turned my head looking at her.

"What?"

She gave a soft smile, "Don't worry. He'll be okay."

I looked back at the road, gripping the steering wheel tighter. Wow. What was up with Max2? When was she becoming…nicer? Did she actually care? Were we becoming friends?

Then I remembered what Angel had said to me and what the Voice had said to me. About sometimes how enemies could become friends, or something like that. And both of them might be right…

I focused on the road even more, squinting from the sun getting in my eyes. The sky was a cloudless blue and was super inviting. I wondered what the flock was doing, they were deffinatley out and free. For some reason thinking about the flock made me miss them even more. I hadn't seen them in maybe two days. But it felt like a whole life time. The only contact I had was with Angel, and that was only from her freakish way of picking up thoughts. In the back round I could hear Mackenzie going on about the School.

"I mean it seriously is a giant marshmallow. Right Max?" she was talking to Max2. And she was so right. Half of the main building was on fire and the other two buildings were catching on fire too.

Wait a second.

There was a pang of guilt in my heart.

I hadn't thought of three things.

1. The fire could spread

2. I could've killed dozens of innocent experiments as well as Erasers and whitecoats.

3. There were explosives there that could do some damage to the wildlife.

But then there was the thought that I we might have destroyed the School forever. There was quick rush of excitement. And then that rush quickly dissolved when I realized that this wasn't going to be the end of the School. We thought back in Germany that Itex was gone forever, that Itex was destroyed.

And you know what happened? Well of course you do. It came back. Itex came back.

I shook my head trying to get these depressing thoughts out of my head. There was another time to worry about this…

"How long do you think we'll need to drive?" Max2 asked me. I kept my eyes focused on the road. A black BMW passed us and I eyed each other the passengers I could see just incase they were going to morph into Erasers.

"I don't know," I raked my hand through my hair, "Maybe a couple of hours? As long as we need to drive until Fang wakes up and might be able to fly to L.A."

* * *

"We've gotten reports from Death Valley about an array of explosions in a certain area," Agent Boothe informed Dr. Martinez, John Abate, Jeb, and Brigid. "As you all know, this area," he circled an area on the map of Death Valley on the Smart Board, "Is where Itex has put one of their laboratories, AKA the School. Agent Boothe looked over at Agent Brennan, who got up and walked over to the board.

"These explosions," she began, "Are believed to be made by homemade bombs. The buildings are close to totally destroyed. This was no accident either. It was done on purpose...We believe that those were created by the avian children."

Dr. Martinez sat up in her chair, "Wow. Do you know where the children are now?" Dr. Martinez sounded didn't change the serious tone in her voice but everyone could tell she was very excited. Everyone was very excited.

* * *

Ella crouched down outside the door of the conference room, pressing her ear against the door---trying to listen to what was going on. Agent Brennan's voice was muffled but Ella understood every word.

Max and the Flock had escaped the School! They had pretty much blown the School up. Akila trotted over and sat down next to her, the puppies close behind. They yapped and yelped, tails wagging hard, as they played around. Ella giggled, shushing them.

"Iggy and the Gasman..." Ella whispered to herself, smiling, when she heard about the homemade bombs.

* * *

**OKAY DID YOU READ THE INFO IN THE BOLD UP THE TOP?! READ IT!!!!!!!**


	37. Chapter 37

**Hey! so chapter 37! Come on guys! 100 reviews! Almost there! So anyway. I was looking around on the web for information about the maximum ride movie. some of the info you might already know and some you may not. OK 1)** Columbia Pictures bought the screen rights **2)** The guy who did the Fantastic 4 movies is working on the script **3) The SCRIPT WAS DONE but Catherine Hardwick(who is the director) wants to add more action so they're kinda re-doing it 4) _As of January 2010 they are not sure if the movie will be made_ 5)** the movie was set to come out this year but there _**isn't** even** a** completed script or **cast**_

**so yeah there you go. **

**And I'm made that Fang hasn't come out yet in the _United States! I mean HELLO the flock lives here! _Well if by live you mean constantly run around & grew up in a lab here. I don't get it.... ANYWAY! Casting calls are taking place. Look for the adresses James Patterson's website and the Maximum Ride website. **

**

* * *

**

We had been coasting down the highway for about another hour, still surrounded by sand and rocks. The sun was still shining brightly, making it a little bit harder to see. Luckily I had found a pair of sunglasses in the glove compartment. But they weren't just your average sunglasses, they had red and black guitars as the frame, with flames going down the side saying _Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame- Cleveland, OH_. Max2 and Mackenzie couldn't stop making fun of them.

Okay, whitecoats. Evil scientists destined to ruin the whole world have time to go to Cleveland, Ohio and tour the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame? Can anyone say super freaky, super annoying, and super weird? Looks like they do have vacation days...

The engine made a loud grumbling, popping sound. A sound that instantly said no good. The engine popped, an wheezed. I looked down to see that the tank was empty. We were all out of gas! "No! No! No!" I groaned when the car slowed down, rumbled for a minute, and the engine died. "Perfect. This is just perfect." I rested by head on the steering wheel, taking in deep breathes, half wanting to bang my head against it.

We all just sat there for a minute, nobody talking until Max2 finally spoke up.

"We can't just sit here... We'll need to start walking--or flying if we want to get outta here."

"Yeah." Mackenzie agreed.

I didn't want to say anything, looking up at Max2 and rolling my eyes, showing my frustration. I unbuckled my seat belt and turned all the way in my seat so that I was looking at Max2, Mackenzie, and a knocked out Fang.

"What about Fang? We can't really _carry_ him." I made a point. They two of them were quiet...thinking. Well they couldn't think of anything. So it's up to me to think of an idea. And I mean actually think. My famous snap decisions probably won't work in this case. Unless this was going to be a snap decision. I don't know. Sometimes it's a little hard telling which is which.

_Remember Max. When you think of a plan, include everyone, think of everyone, and plan ahead. Make up a plan A, B, and C. _

I jumped. Geez. Was I ever going to get used to Voice not being annoying for a while and then it coming back in the most random times? Nope. I don't think so. "It's just the Voice." I looked at Max2, who relaxed and nodded. Mackenzie still looked confused but didn't say anything.

_Okay Voice. I'll think of everyone and I'll include everyone... But I don't think we have the time to make a Plan C. I don't think I have enough time to even think of a Plan A or B. _I squinted, pulling off my Rock n' Roll sunglasses and rubbing my tired eyes. My stomach made a loud gurgling, growling sound, my muscles clenching, my stomach twisting. I bit my lip. We needed to find food also. Our last meal was probably two days ago.

"Okay how about this," I spoke up, "Mackenzie? You stay here with Fang and gaurd him. If anything happens then there is a gun in the glove compartment so---you know... Max2, you're coming with me. We'll hit the air and try to find the nearest gas station, get some gas and food from there and bring it back. If we find somewhere really far then we come back, and figure out a way to take Fang with us. Got it?"

"Yes." they answered in unison.

"Okay," I clapped my hands together, "Come on Max."

* * *

Maximum Ride was _not _going to get away with this. If she thought she could Merrily blow up the School--one of the most important laboratories in the world-- and skip off and be safe with the CSM and the government then she was very much mistaken. She would be found and she would be punished.

Mr. Chu paced back and forth in his Hong Kong office. His office in the School was almost completely destroyed. Half of the building, the half that had the important files and papers, had been destroyed. The other two buildings had caught fire but nothing was destroyed in them. This would cost millions and maybe billions of U.S dollars to repair and replace all of te state of the art equipment they had in the School.

He stopped at his desk, looking down at the half empty bottle of Brandy he had finished in half an hour. "That inferior child. Who does she think she is?" he murmured angrily to himself, "She needs to be stopped. I need to hurt and scare her physically and emotionally. Then she might back off." Mr. Chu thought he had done that when he took her mother, Valencia Martinez, and almost killed her. That hurt her emotionally right? And he had hurt her physically when his guards MGs(or what Maximum had called M-Geeks, which had been discontinued after the new Erasers were successful) attacked her and her family.

But no.

She just came back.

When he erased her memory and sent her away, some how she regained her memory and came back to get revenge and going back to her "saving the world" mission. He sat down in his chair, chugging his Brandy straight from the bottle. "Ghaa..." he breathed in heavily, taking a puff of the cigar laying down on his table. His eye lids felt heavy, and he rubbed his tired eyes. He groggily leaned forward, pulling the phone towards him and dialing a number.

"This is Marian Jannsen."

"Uhh h-hello Ms. Jannsen!" Mr. Chu smiled.

"Mr. Chu? Sir?" Marian sounded confused.

Mr. Chu laughed and leaned back in his chair, sending his arms all around. His hand hit the bottle, making it fall over. "Ohh. Haha."

"Oh my God. Mr. Chu are you drunk?!" Marian exclaimed.

"Not drunk Ms. Jannsen. Just happy," Mr. Chu straightened up as best as he could," Now I didn't just call to greet you Ms. Jannsen. I wanted to tell you a couple of things. We need to wrap up the C Project. And we need to commence it."

It was quiet on the other line.

"Ms. Jannsen?"

"Sir," she cleared her throat, "Are you sure? No. You need to straighten up. I'll come over in a week and we can talk about this when you're sober."

Mr. Chu frowned, sighing. "Fine, Ms. Jannsen, I am expecting you in seven days." He ended the call, feeling a little angry.

* * *

"Do you see anything?" Max2 hollered over to me.

We were a low eight thousand feet in the air, scanning the ground, flying for about less than an hour, looking for people. We needed to find a place to go. A gas station, a house, maybe even a tiny little road side stop. Just anything where we could get some gas and find a phone to call for help.

I did a quick 180 of the air, keeping an eye out for flying, arms-that-transform-into-machine-gun Erasers. The air was pretty calm and quiet except for a flock of birds in the far distance. It reminded me of my flock, making me wonder if they were okay.

I shook my head. Of course they were! They were the _flock_. _My_ flock. They had made it without me or Fang before right?

Right?

I'm pretty sure they could take care of themselves, they were tough and strong.

We were costing on a gentle air current, occasionally flapping our wings to gain some speed, so my eyes weren't watering as badly. The only thing we could see was desert and highway. Huh. Great. This meant we would need to travel farther away from Fang and Mackenzie. I looked up at the horizon, squinting in the sun light. There were large dark specks up ahead. I focused on the specks. Slowly the specks began to take form. Then windows began to appear, followed by smaller details; window boxes filled with colorful flowers, curtains in the windows, and signs coming into focus.

There was a burst of hope in me and I felt overwhelming joy.

This could be it!!! YES! I couldn't help but do a little mental dance.

"Do you see that?" I called over to Max2.

"Yeah!"

We broke off of the current, our wings flapping fast and hard, going faster. We were heading towards the city at a cool 100 mph and in less than 2 minutes we were circling twelve thousand feet above the small town. I could make out houses, random buildings, resturants, a few hotels, and a couple of gas stations. This was getting better and better.

"This is probably ten miles away from Fang and Mackenzie!" I told Max2. She nodded and I motioned for us to land. We flew in wide circling, dropping altitude with every circle. We landed behind a couple of buildings in the edge of the city, our bare feet thumping on the hot asphalt.

Note to self:

Get _shoes_.

The boots we had gotten from the oh so kind Marian Jannsen were pretty much messed up and unwearable. Yeah. Unwearable for a bird kid. That bad.

"Ohh hot! Hot!" I breathed, jumping. The both of us ran into some shade, the soles of our feet cooling down in the shade. We made our way around the building, which was a hardware store, and tried to hide our wings as best as we could with the jackets we brought along with us. Yeah. Jackets in this weather. I know...We began walking casually down the side walk. Surprisingly there was grass lawns in front of the houses, and little trees. We passed a couple of girls our ages. They blinked a few times, staring Max2 and I up and down.

I think they were a little shocked to see us walking down the streets bare foot with our jears rolled up to our knees and wearing jackets, like thick jackets(which conveintly covered our wings but made us boil).

Or it could be the fact that we( Max2 and I) looked line clone(even though Max2 _is _my clone) twin sisters, both giving them a casual look and looking away.

But I could feel their eyes boring into the backs of our heads and it set me off ease. The sound of shoes against the ground close behind us made me freeze and my breath caught in my throat.

"Hey!"

Max2 and I turned around slowly, getting ready to punch anyone in the face and fly away as fast as we could.

"Hello?!"

I calmed a bit, recognizing the voice of a teenage girl. But you never know if this could be a trap or not.

Max2 and I slowly turned around, and I tired to put the most casual non-tense look of my face possible. The same girls that we had passed scurried over, their flip flops thumping loudly against the side walk. They stopped in front of us. I couldn't help roll my eyes.

Just a bunch of preppy blonds in bikinis holding whatever drink in a cup with a colorful umbrella.

And don't you say anything.

I still went to school for a few weeks, and had friends at that school I was at when I was some Carter chick the Chuster's rats had programed into my head. My memories of that came in handy here. There were girls like this. And usually they were the preppy blond Hollister, Abercrombie, Ugg wearing , extension wearing popular girls.

**But don't get me wrong**. There are blonds who wear off _that stuff and are **totally cool**_! **_No discrimination_**! It's just _these_ girls in particular were radiating popularity.

"Hi...." I trailed off. What did they want?

"Hi! My names Torry! OMG. I--we just saw you guys coming from somewhere around the hardware store and we were like 'OMG! Twins!' So we needed to come over and talk to you. I mean gosh. I love your hair," the named Torry said to me, pointing out the blond streaks in my brown hair, "And yours too!" she pointed to the traces of hot pink in Max2's hair.

"Umm thank you?" Max2 sounded confused.

"Well anyway I saw what ya'll were wearing and was like OMG! You need some different clothes! I mean no offense! But like you two are so tall and are supper skinny--kinda like me--anyways! I mean those jeans looked uncomfortable and I thought if ya'll were new or something to Reda Hills then I could take you somewhere to get you some clothes...Unless you don't want too---I totally get it! You just like met us and that would be weird. Ya'll look pretty hungry too! I could take you to the _Wings, _it's this hot restaurant at the edge of town. Best salads and buffalo wings ever." Torry went on and on.

Geeezzz. What a _chatter box_. And I thought Nudge talked too much. Heck Nudge seems pretty quiet compared to Torry.

"No it's okay. Seriously. We're fine." Max2 took a step back.

The girls standing behind Torry blinked, like we had done something seriously wrong.

Torry's facial expression didn't change from the preppy smile, but I could see her tense up, trying hard to keep calm. "That's cool. I mean can't I--I--I mean anything? We could like bond and become BF4Ls."

BF4Ls? What the heck was that?

Best friends for life maybe?

I don't know....

We both looked down at her( because she was probably only 5'4) shaking our heads at the same time.

"Seriously? Clothes? Food? Nothing? I mean those clothes?" A girl from behind her said.

WTF?

Why were these girls acting so nice to us?

I mean was this a trap?

Or where these girls just looking to help two fashionably challenged genetic freaks? Which they didn't know about the genetic part. Hopefully...

I began to back away slowly, "Seriously." I firmly said.

Torry seemed to snap out of her trance and blinked a few times, looking dazed. "Oh. Okay! I mean cool! If you need anything look for the house with your next head cheerleader! I mean seriously! If you join the squad then vote!" she laughed, pulling a card out of nowhere and handing it to me.

I reluctanlty took the pink card. It had the words "VOTE OF TORRY BAILEY FOR YOUR NEXT HEAD CHEERLEADER OF THE FALL 2010 SCHOOL YEAR!" written across the top in big pink sparkly letters along with a picture of a much oranger Torry posing in a blue and green cheerleading uniform.

We couldn't say anything else before they all turned and left, running to a bunch of boys pulling in their driveway in a Mustang.

"Okay. Now that was seriously bizzar. With a captial T." Max2 pointed out.

"Yeah I know---here come on." I tossed the card to Max2 and we began to treck across the warm pavement to where there were a bunch of signs for the shopping area. It was about a five minute walk to the complex and we headed towards a _Good Will _store. In the time of need you can always trust those guys.

Luckily there wasn't a "No shoes no entry" sign on the doors so we got in pretty quickly and without any distractions. Heading our way to the womens/girls section we began going through racks of clothing.

"Make it quick." I told Max2 and she rolled her eyes, placing her hands on her hips.

"Aww. And I was hoping I could take my time and try out a few things. You know. Shopping!"

I ingnored her and figetted with some weird hangers that had gotten tangled up. A couple of them fell to the floor. And you know have no idea of what one said.

On the top of the small pile of clothes was a gray t-shirt that said "Save The World" on the back along with a pair of white and brown wings. Freaky twist of fate? I couldn't help but chuckle, feeling a little freaked out. How the heck did a shirt that said that with wings end up at a_ Good Will _in the middle of a California desert?

Beats me.

I picked up the t-shirt, holding it up and showing Max2, who blinked a couple of times, looking shocked.  
"What the heck?!" she said coming over.

"Exactly what I was thinking." I murmered.

"Are you gonna get it?" she asked.

"I don't think so. I mean I might as well get a shirt that says "I'm Maximum Ride. I have wings and my mision is to "Save the World"! I don't think so. It would give me up to any Itex or Chu agent lurking around." I sighed.

"What a shame..." Max2 shook her head and I couldn't help but laugh.

* * *

** I am seriously sorry That i haven't been updating as fast and as frequent as I could!!! I mean my computer wants to die---never mind. Don't ask. Well anyways! Yeah. umm I'm not sure how many chapters this story is going to be but it's gonna be long. Lets just say this is only the beginning. *wink wink*. like all of the things that have happened are going to lead up to something a whole lot bigger than what the title of this story of the summary of it is leading up to.**

**So tell people about this story! Spread the word. **

**And Fav it!**

**And subscribe!**

**And COMMENT COMMENT COMMENT!**

**100! COME ONE!**


	38. Chapter 38

**Cool. So. Chapter 38! Yay! I just got FANG and finished in like a day. I have to honestly say that i was a little dissapointed and it wasn't JPs best Max Ride work. BUT I STILL LOVE IT!!!! *I dont own any of the lyrics of the song in this chapter TDG does. **

**SORRY IT'S TAKEN LIKE A TRILLION YEARS FOR ME TO UPDATE!!!!!**

********OHH! and then Next Maximum Ride book! Got details right here.**

**T******he REAL summary. Exclusively from Hatchet Books. **

*******ANGEL : A MAXIMUM RIDE NOVEL **

**They wont show the whole thing but here it is:**  
In the seventh book in the bestselling series, evil scientists are still trying to convince Max that she needs to save the world, this time by providing the genetic link in speeding up the pace of evolution. Worse, they're trying to convince her that her perfect mate is Dylan, the newest addition to the flock. The problem is that, despite herself, Max is starting to believe it.

* * *

Max2 and I got out of the _Good Will _pretty quickly, spending a mear ten bucks. Max had gotten a blue t-shirt, a black jacket( for the cold desert nights) a new pair of jeans, and white combat boots. She had gotten the same thing for Mackenzie, the plastic bag with the clothes slung over her shoulder. I had gotten a plain red t-shirt, a black zip up hoodie, new non-sopping wet jeans, and a pair of black combat boots.

Everything you need to be a stylish mutant bird freak.

Max2 and I pretty much looked like twins. Which you know--we were clones.

I had also gotten Fang some clothes(in the usual Fang black) along with new non busted shoes.

* * *

You know what I just now relaized? Something so big, so important, that if I hadn't thought of this earlier that I by far would be the biggest idiot on the planet?

We'll I'll tell you.

Instead of getting gallons of gasoline and having to _carry _them when you're _flying_ along with other things you need to a broken down car in the middle of the desert why don't I just get _another car_?

I have no idea. (Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!)

Max2 and I walked out of a conveninece store near a gas station holding bags of sandwhiches, water bottles, flash lights, matches, and first aid supplies to the Mercedes Benz we  
"borrowed" from our good friend Torry.

These days we had been borrowing cars a lot.

But I doubt Torry will miss it. There were three other ones in her garage anyway. I still think we should have taken their old station wagon but Max2 insisted that we'd blend in when we got to L.A. It was also her idea to get the clothes that would be the exact opposite either of us would ever think of picking out.

Because you know--- I'm pretty fashionably challenged here... Well me, Maximum Ride, not the person Mr. Chu made me into (Carter, remember her?) and whose thoughts and memories kept on playing back again and again in my head. It was getting super annoying. More annoying than Iggy. And that's saying something. First I think thoughts I would've never thought of before, like if clothes matched, how my hair was, and even thinking about putting on _makeup_. Then there were small flashes of memory of "me" looking at my "parents" and hanging out with my "family".

I felt like my head was going to explode from all of the things going on in my head.

In a couple of minutes we were out of the small sleeping town(which I learned is called Charlestown) and racing down the one road highway sourrounded by desert. We'd taken a little longer than expected in Charlestown and it was getting late. The sky was growing shades of purple, the few clouds floating around were turning light purple. Max2 had flipped on the radio and we surprisingly got a radio singal all the way out in the desert. The radio was blasting a loud rock song, making my heart beat with the durms.

"_Do you think about everything you've been throught? You never thought you'd be so depressed? Are you wondering is it life or death?" _

Hmmm...

Yes i do.

No i don't.

All the time.

_" We are the ones! We get knocked down! We get back up! And stand above the crowd! We are one!" _

I sighed and rubbed my temples with one hand. It felt like there was a ten ton block on each of my shoulders followed by a million ton block hanging over my head. I just didn't know why... Was the whole SAVING THE WORLD thing getting to my head finally? Was it Fang? Was it that my flock wasn't here?

_Relax Max. You're too upset. Don't think about this... Just go with the flow and let the current sweep you away. Don't fight._ The Voice spoke up. Voice. Sometimes it was the most annoying thing on the planet. And then there were sometimes when I was super glad that I had it.

And this was one of those times.

_Thanks Voice._

I focused on the road ahead of me, trying my hardest not to think about anything that would make me upset.

* * *

**I DO NOT OWN THE LYRICS TO THE SONG ONE X BY THREE DAYS GRACE (TDG)! THEY DO! **


	39. Chapter 39

**Okay! So chapter 39. 92 comments! almost 100 :D**

**_Maximum Ride Movie Update :_- the movie was supposed to come out in 2010( THE SCREEN RIGHTS FOR THE FIRST TWO MOVIES WERE BOUGHT BY COMLUMBIA PICUTRES IN HOLLYWOOD), and well, now thats totally not going to happen. The movie's director Catherine Hardwick wanted to add more action and more Maxness to the script so they went back and edited the script, causing the delay in starting the production. The movie is set to come out now in 2013, hopefully earlier. So far _there is no cast_, but there have been casting calls starting in the United States and they're hoping to go over seas by July. There's a website you can go on but I'm not aware of the link yet. **

**So there you go! Maximum Ride movie update :)**

* * *

"What the heck is that?" Emma called over the roaring wind, twelve thousand feet in the night air. She flew out of formation, circling fifty feet under the others, still flying in a "V". Nudge squinted in the sun, scanning the ground where Emma was circling.

"Look! Over there!" Total called over the roaring wind, his voice fading slowly, and pointed a small furry black paw down at a black SUV with a steady fire near it.

"What- or who do you think that is?" Nudge asked, sounding a little curious. She could make out two figures, a girl and a boy. The clouds made it hard for her to make out more than that. She knew the right thing to do would be to just forget about it and focus on going to Los Angeles where both Maxs, Fang, and Mackenzie would be waiting. But there was something. Something in the back of her head that was bothering her---- Something was telling her to go and get a better look at who those people were. Something that wasn't going away as much as she tired to throw it out of her brain.

Not being able to take it any longer she finally spoke up. "I--I'm gonna go take a better look."

Iggy's head whipped to the side, his eyes piercing perfectly into hers even though he couldn't see anything. _"What?" _there was tension in his voice and Nudge instantly Iggy didn't like the sound of that. Nudge couldn't help but frown.

"Iggy. I'm going to take another look," Nudge firmly announced. "You can't stop me, even if you have gone through this whole 'I'm leader for now, so that means that I'm gonna be more responsible' transformation." she hissed under her breath.

Iggy's mouth dropped open, along with everyone else. He turned his head so nobody could see his face and paused, thinking. After several loooooong seconds he turned back to the rest of the flock with a look of defeat and let out a deep breathe.

"Fine Nudge but we're all going to check it out. One sign of danger then we're out of there. No landing. Got it?"

A large grin grew on Nudges lips and she couldn't help but squeal with excitement and clap her hands loudly. She swerved in the air, breaking out of formation and flying in a wide circle to turn around and drop altitude. The others did the same maneuver.

Nudge's heart began to thump loudly in her chest, blood rushing to her ears, the sound of wind ringing in her ears. The clouds began to move away and clear in the dark night, the light coming from the full moon helping her see the mysterious people down below. She circled above the SUV staying hidden just in case there was danger down bellow.

Nudge focused down bellow. In an istant everything began to fucus, every rock on the ground, every small bush and stub, the rims of the tires, the fabric that was being used to keep the fire going, and the features on the boy and the girl. Hair. Clothes. Eyes. Lips. Her hand flew to her mouth. Nudge couldn't belive it. Excitment and happiness washed over her, making her tingly from head to toe and she felt like she was going to blow up with excitement.

It was Fang. Fang was lying against a pile of back packs that were pilled against the car................sleeping? He looked sick. Mackenzie sat on the other side of the fire, looking warily at the ground in some sort of trance.

"Ohmigod! It's---"Nudge breathed but before she could finish her setance was cut off.

"It's Fang!" Max's voice rang.

Everyone looked over expecting to see Max flying towards them with blood smeared on her face and clothes from beating the snot out of a couple of Erasers and whitecoats.

But no.

It was the Gasman using his gift of mimicking someone's voice perfectly to trick everyone.

Nudge glared then rolled her eyes at him but he just chuckled, giving Nudge a thumbs up. She snorted a laugh and turned her attention back down at the one seventh of her flock lying on the ground.

* * *

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!"Max2 leaned against the dash board. I narrowed my eyes and looked at the road stretching miles in front of that. Eveything seemed peaceful but an orange glow caught my eye and I felt my stomach drop. That was in the direction of where Fang and Mackenzie were, where our car was!

Thousands of ideas and scenarios played in my head of what could've happened or was happening.

_Erasers attacked!_

_Erasers are attacking!_

_The SUV some how blew up!_

_Chu's goons came!_

_Chu's goons are there and some how a fire is used to kill! _

_Chu's goons and Erasers came and the SUV blew up in the proccess! _

_Fang and Mackenzie were killed and the car was set on fire to clean up any evidence!_

_A group of canibles came and were having bird kid BBQ!_

I shook my head and rolled my eyes. Okay. The last one was a little stupid and a little crazy. But you know, that's just me and my wild and crazy imagination. "I have no idea." I finally sputtered out, tying to swollow the large lump in my throat. I stepped on the gas even harder, making me jolt backward, my seat belt digging into my skin, making me choke and gag. I cluthed the wheel with one hand, my other hand flying up to my neck and pealing away the seat belt. The skin where the belt dug was red and burned like crazy but there was no blood. Thankfully. I didn't need to waste any more time to stop and properly take care of the wound.

"Whoo Nelly! Watch it!" Max2 growled, pulling the section of seat belt that almost sliced her neck too. I leaned back, taking in deep breathes. Something good ol' Voice showed---said---um----insturcted me into doing to calm my nerves and keep my heart rate to the normal bird kid and not like I was in combat most of the time.

For some reason I just couldn't freaking relax. Probably due to the fact that Fang could be dead and I don't even know it or the fact that he could be dying and I can't do a damn thing about it.

_Now Max. What did I tell you about calming down?_ I mentally yelled at myself.

The engine of the car purred loudly and my whole body was shaking from the rocks and stones on the road making it extremely bumby. I was surprised that I hadn't hurlled, not from the fact that I was in a small car (remember? claustrophobic= car bad) or on an extrememly bump road, but from the fact that I was so stressed out.

In the night sky there was a long streak of gold, yellow, blue and orange light. A shooting star. Then instantly I rememebered something Jeb had told me when I saw my first shooting star back at our old house in the Colarado Rockys.

_"Remember Max. When ever you see a shooting star, squeeze your eyes shut hard and whish for something you want. Something you really, really want."_ Jeb's voice echoed in my head from a new memory that was restored in my brain.

_I really wish the rest of my flock was somewhere near. Or better yet they were there waiting by the SUV with Fang. _I squeezed my eyes shut and repeated my wish a couple of times and then opened them, focusing back on the road and the orange and yellow glow up ahead.


	40. Chapter 40

**Chapter 40. Wow. Seems like only last July I started this Fan Fict. Oh wait. I _did_ start it last July. Okay well whatever. **

* * *

Mackenzie waited for both Maxes to come. They'd been gone for a while now and it had already gotten dark. The only light was coming from the fire she was able to start. She had also been able to pull Fang out of the SUV and prop his head onto a couple of backpacks from the trunk. He looked pretty sick.

True.

She had been in the same conditions as him and she was sure she migh have had frost bite too. But for some reason, which she still couldn't figure out this one whitecoat(who Max said was their fake mother---she still didn't understand the whole mother issue with both Maxs) wanted him to suffer more than anyone else. Was it because of the other Max? The Max who wasn't a clone? It was something between them. She didn't really need to know.

She leaned back, closing her eyes and trying to relax, but keeping her senses on high alert for any danger. For some odd reason she had an over whelming feeling of being watched. She had gotten up and searched around but didn't find or sense anything dangerous. Maybe it was just her being paranoid. From experuience she knew that you could never keep your gaurd down. Even if it felt like you were safe. You never were. She learned that the day almost half of her flock had gotten murdered.

She looked at the dark sky. And out of the corner of her eye she could see a dark wing. Someone was here. It could be Max and Max. It could be birds. Or it could be flying Erasers. Jumping to her feet she looked around. There.

She could see more wings. There was a flock.

Her heart began pumping faster. How was she going to protect herself and Fang?

Well if she was going to fight then she would have to protect him...No point in asking how...

Out in the distance she could hear the low purr of a care engine and her pulse became even faster. She could hear the blood thumping in her ears, her temples hurting from the sudden headache. Her breath came low and ragged.

The sound of the engine grew louder and louder. _rmmmmmmnnnnn....rmmmmmnnnnnn...roommmmmmnnnnn. _Finally she could make out headlights. Oh no. This was not good. This could be the end. Instinctively she backed away and kicked sand into the fire until it went out and the only light she had was from the full moon up above. The car was coming closer. Now she could make out a silver frame and the small Mercedes Benz symbol on the hood of the car.

Mackenzie wanted to run and fly away, fly away somewhere were she could contact the others. But she couldn't leave Fang. For some reason she felt that she needed to stay and not leave Fang behind even though she had only know him for a couple of days. Like it was a 'Bird Kids Don't Leave Other Bird Kids Behind' thing.

With her raptor vision she could see everything clearly. She focused on the drivers. Their features came into shape. It was Max. Both Maxs. She let out a deep breath then inhaled deeply, like she had been holding her breath for such a long time.

Then she saw the dark wing again, followed by a white wing and a small black figure.

Suddenly there was a sharp pain in her head and she clutched her head, squeezing her eyes shut. Then the pain was in her stomach and she felt like she was going to puke. She staggered to the small chair she made out of rocks and sat down, resting her head in her hands.

"God. What's happening?" she whispered to herself.

* * *

"Come on! We need to land! Why aren't we like landing?! They're right there! Fang is right there! And Max. I bet you a hundred million dollars she is somewhere around here," Nudge rambled on and on. She was talking to Iggy but he tuned her out a while ago---something he mastered when they used to live in secret in Colorado(something that felt like life times ago).

They had disappeared behind some hills and were circling overhead. Nudge insisted---was insisting--- that they land right away. But they needed to keep away for a while. Wait until they knew it was completely safe and Max was back.

"Iggy! Are you listening to me?" Nudge snapped when she realized he had gone off somewhere to la la land. He grunted, waving his hand. Nudge rolled her eyes, her hands on her hips in the air, "Whatever..." she grumbled.

Angel chuckled, putting her hand to her mouth so Nudge wouldn't see her laughing.

* * *

_( Max2 POV)_

"Yo! What up?" I called, sticking my head out of the car window, when Max killed the engine. Mackenzie looked up, cradling her head in her hands. She gave a faint smile and rubbed her temples, standing up and walking over to the car.

She looked really pale, huge bags under her eyes, and drool coming down the side of her mouth. She looked terrible. "Nothin' much. How 'bout you?" she gave a faint laugh, resulting her choking on air and coughing her.

"You look terrible, Mackenzie. Go lay down." Max ordered, patting Mackenzie on the shoulder. She took a deep breath and nodded, not saying another word and collapsing against a stray backback near the dead fire.

Max turned to me, "I'll get the stuff outta the back. You go see if Mackenzie is okay and is just like this from exhaustion." I nodded and climbed out of the car, my shoes making loud crunching sounds against the stones lining to the side of the road where Mackenzie was lying. The heat was still coming off of the fire Mackenzie had put out and wood was still crunching and breaking under the rocks on top of the fire and sand.

I walked over to Mackenzie, who was lying on her stomach with her eyes closed. I tugged at her body so that I could check if she was getting a fever. Mackenzie suddenly tensed and her arm flew up and snatched my arm in a way that if she moved it, my bone would get some damage.

"Stop Mackenzie," I almost growled, but tired making my voice more soft and gentle like how Max talked to her flock when she wanted to comfort them, "It's just me. I just need to check your temperature."

She grumbled something that sounded like yes and rolled over. I placed my palm on her forehead and pulled back. "She is really warm." I said loud enough for Max to hear me. She walked over holding a bunch of bags in her hands and a plastic bag dangling from her teeth.

Gently dropping them to the ground she said, "Oh no. This is just great," she paused for a minute and looked off into the distance. She was talking to the Voice inside her head.

I wonder if he--she---it--whatever it was--- got annoying at times. I mean. I would be too if there was something in my head that talked to me all the time and saw what I saw and heard what I thought. I mean. Hello. No privacy.

Her expression changed from calm to irritated and she rolled her eyes, sighing. "Yeah whatever. Shut it Voice. Or I'll poke you with a Q-tip." she murmured to herself. She saw me watching and self consciously gave a little shrug before fishing around in the bags and pulling out some stuff to light the fire again.

"Here."

I looked up just in time to see Max toss me a water bottle and caught it with one hand. I nodded and turned back to Mackenzie.

"Sit up kiddo." I murmured to Mackenzie, pulling her up and making her sit up against the SUV. She warily opened her eyes, looking around and then down at the water bottle I was holing in one hand. She licked her lips. I snapped the cap off and pressed the bottle against her lips and she began to drink water. She closed her eyes and chugged, a small whimper escaping her lips.

"God," she spoke up, pushing the water bottle away, "Who knew water could taste so good."

I smiled, "Well if you think water tastes good then wait till you get a turkey sandwich."

Her eyes light up and she took another sip of water, getting a little bit of her strength back. She laid back down, curling up in a ball next the fire Max sparked. I got up and dusted my pants off, grabbing a sandwich out of the plastic bag. I swear. My mouth was dripping drool. It was like the sandwich was calling to me. Like "Max. Maaaxxxxx.... Turkey... Tuuurkeeyy."

The first bite of the sandwich was amazing, the best bite of food I had ever taken. The whole wheat bread, the ice burg lettus, layers of turkey, tomatoes, and condiments. It was sooo good. Way better than the vitamin enriched mush they were trying to feed us at the School.

Maximum Ride sat down next to me, holding a turkey sand which of her own and biting into it. We both let out a whimper of delight at the same time. Looking at each other we burst out laughing. All of the sudden the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. My whole body stiffened. Someone was here. Next to me, Max stiffened too. She got up casually, doing a quick 360 of the perimeter.


	41. Chapter 41

**OKay. Chapter 41. OMG. Only a few chapters left.... Ok! ****News for all of you TWI-HARDS!**

**ANOTHER TWILIGHT BOOK IS COMING OUT. YA. IT'S TRUE. **

* * *

"God. I'm so happy you guys are okay!" I finally said after the meet and great full of hugs and tears. We were all sitting around the fire, inhaling our sandwiches.

"Me too," the Gasman said between bites, "I thought something bad happened. Especially when I saw Fang not moving." he swolled and took his fourth sandwhich. I ruffled his hair and smiled, taking a quick glance at Fang. He was still out of it and Angel had tired a couple of times to get him to wake up with her weird mind control thing to see if it worked.

It didn't.

The only thing that was giving me hope about him being okay was the steady rise and fall of his chest as he breathed.

I turned my attention back to my flock, "So. What happened? I mean, I thought you would be in L.A. already waiting."

Total hopped up onto a back pack next to me, spinning around a few times to get comfortable and plopped down. His little black eyes look up at me and his nose twitched. "You and me both. We got a little side tracked when getting out. A lot of the exits had closed up and there was so much fire we couldn't find a way out. Well. Until Iggy just blew us another entrance." he explained.

I nodded, "Oh."

"Well then we can all go to L.A. together." Haley spoke up.

"Yeah." Emma and Mackenzie said in unison.

Nudge laughed, "Oh! We should. Wait! What am I saying! DUH. If we're together then we're obviously gonna go to L.A. together." she ran her fingers through her fluff of hair. Her fingers got stuck in some of the curls and tangles, a look of total irritation on her face. "I really need a hair brush."

"When do you think we could leave?" Angel asked. Everyone looked at her(minus Iggy).

"Well in the morning, sweetie." I answered and the others nodded.

She nodded hesitantly then just smiled and ate some of her Doritos. "Just wanted to know."

"Okay..." I looked over at Angel and then to Fang. Getting up and grabbing my water bottle I walked over to Fang and knelt down lifting his head and pressed the bottle to his lips. They were dry and water was running down along his chin and neck.

Good. Max. Keep him hydrated. Voice instructed. I didn't say or think anything, not really caring if the Voice was there or not. No time for sarcastic comments, rolling of the eyes, or both.

"Gooooossshhhhhh," Total yawned and stretched his little body, "I'm so beat. Good night people."

Nudge followed, "Same here."

"Me too." the Gasman and Emma said.

"Good night." Haley yawned, curling up next to Emma and Mackenzie.

"I'm beat. Sleepin' too." Iggy mumbled and stretched out in the sand.

Max2 looked up at me, "I can take first watch if you want."

I shook my head, "No. It's fine. Just------errrrmmm-----you go to sleep." She didn't say anything else and laid down a little further away from the fire.

* * *

"You had a phone with you this whole time and you didn't tell me?!" I shouted, jabbing my fists into the side of hips. Iggy took a step back and put up his hands as if to protect himself from me jumping on him and punching his throat.

"I--I forgot!" he snapped back.

I rolled my eyes, "Uhh God Iggy! I'm rolling my eyes at you!"

It was around eight AM the next day and everyone was awoken by me yelling at Iggy. For some reason Iggy had totally forgotten that he had a cell phone with him the whole time and we could've just called from that instead of having to wait another night in the desert.

"Yo..What's with all the yelling?" the Gasman asked groggily looking up and squinting in the sun light. The side of his face and hair was covered by sand and I made a mental note to de-sandify the flock when we were near some water or at a hotel.

"Max! I told you. It slipped my mind!" he explained for the millionth time. I just ignored it and extended my hand.

"Okay. Just give me the phone." I said through clenched jaws.

"Fine." He extended his arm out, holding a flip phone, and I took it.

I shielded my eyes from the blinding sun and looked down at the little red and black phone that had LG faded on the front.

"Will we even get any bars around here?" the Gasman asked, standing up and dusting himself off the best he could. I peered down at the phone, now opened. On the top left corner of the screen was a T and a couple of Little bars coming out from the side. My eyes widened and I almost jumped for joy.

"YES! Three bars!" I exclaimed. Max2 came up from somewhere behind the SUV.

"Three bars of what?" she asked. I showed her the cellphone and the three bars on the top of the screen. Her eyes widened too and she grinned.

"YES!" she cheered. "Wait a sec. Do you know their number?" her grin disappeared.

"Shit." I murmured. The phone number! Of course!

Try... The Voice chimed a phone number in my head. And what is that number? Well now I can't tell you that. For the security of us and possibly the world. If you know what I mean. But the number was Ella's cellphone number.

"Here! Let my try this number, " I repeated the number out loud. Everyone was now awake and alert and they all stood tensed and in silence as I dialed the number and put the phone to my ear. "It's ringing,"

"Hello?" a familiar voice answered.

"Ella! It's me Max."

* * *

Ella's eyes widened and she let out a loud gasp. "MAX!" she shouted.

"Hi," she answered warily.

Dr. Martinez walked into the room, followed by John and Jeb. "Ella? What happened?"

Ella couldn't even function properly, she was so excited. So excited and so in shock about Max calling her. She held her phone up, her hand shaking. "I--i---i-i-i-i-i-i-it-ts--MAX!" she held the phone up. Dr. Martinez turned white and then snatched the phone from Ella and put it to her ear.

"MAX! OhmyGOD! You're alive," her voice stammered and she felt tears coming, "Where are you? You're okay. OhmyGod." she kept repeating that to herself, wiping a tear away with her index finger knuckle.

"We're in California. Somewhere in the desert. Where are you?" her voice came crackly from the other.

"We came to Washington D.C. to get information on how to find you."

Jeb put his hand on Dr. Martinez's shoulder, "Tell Max to go to the nearest city. And leave the cellphone there. Who know who is going to trace that call."

She nodded and was about to speak before Max said something.

"I heard him, Mom."

Dr. Martinez handed the phone over to Jeb. "Here you tell her more."

He nodded and put the phone to his ear, "Max? It's Jeb."

"I got that." Max answered with ice cold words. He couldn't help but flinch at the tone of her voice but tired to ignore it and sound fine.

Jeb nodded, "Good. Listen up---"

There was a loud popping sound and he could hear the flock scream.

"What the heck?" Max screamed. "Fighting position now! Get out! Go!"

Jeb's heart began to pound in his chest, "What's going on?" he asked with a tone of urgency. She didn't answer, but he could hear the Gasman yell,

"Erasers!" then there was another loud popping sound and the line went dead. He shut the phone and spun around, his palms sweating and his vision blurry. He tried to calm himself down and tell the others what was going on.

John Abate stepped forward and put his hand on Dr. Martinez's shoulder. They had all heard what had happened, he didn't need to explain what was going on. Ella put her hand to her mouth to smother the sob that escaped her chest. Hot tears blurred her vision and she sat down. She felt like she was going to throw up.

"What are we going to do?" Dr. Martinez looked from Jeb to John Abate. John didn't say anything, his teeth clenched and his hands curled in fists. Jeb walked away to the table where a laptop sat. He sat down and began typing things into the computer; commands, websites, and passwords.

He looked up at the others with ice in his, "Valencia, you call the FBI--CIA--anyone who can help. I'm going to track the phone. We're not going to loose them again."

* * *

Jeb had gotten the phone and was trying to tell me something when there was a loud popping sound and screams. In horror I watched something that looked like a grenade go off and send us flying in the air. I did a flip in the air, and fell on my back, going sliding across the sand. My skin was burning like crazy and rocks and twigs cut into my skin. Fresh blood pooled in my mouth and I spit it out, disgusted.

"What the heck?" I screamed, turning on my stomach, the cellphone in hand, and jumped to my feet. Sand had gotten in my mouth and I could taste some desert rat poop. Oh Gross. There was a cloud of sand and dust all around, making it almost impossible to see. But what I could see were five black wolfish specks. My heart beat sped up and I got into fighting position.

"Fighting postions now! Get out! Go!" I screamed to the flock, blindly walking in the cloud of dust. From the phone I could hear Jeb shouting but ignored him.

"Erasers!" the Gasman shouted and flew up in the air. I snapped the phone shut and threw it aside, running forward in and snapping out my wings and lifting into the air. The dust began to settle and the Eraser's wolfish bodies came more into view. They were standing ten feet away from the SUV and the Mercedes. They had large grins on their long ugly faces, snapping their jaws and taunting us with little remarks like,

"Hey there little piggies,"

"Mmm. I like bird kid for lunch."

They all snickered.

I flew in large circles, getting ready to dive bomb into one and rip out their throats. They stood there but then turned around and looked up at the sky. There in the sky, seven more Erasers flew, their giant black wings beating in sync. My stomach dropped.

An Eraser roared suddenly, and like lighting shot into the air and grabbed Nudge by the ankle. She let out a screeching sound and kicked furiously, trying so hard to get up and away. He was over powering. He took her and slammed her into the ground, making her cry out. An Eraser shot towards me, his wings beating hard. I tucked in my wings, rocketing towards the ground with immense speed and before I could hit the ground, unfurled my wings, and turned horizontal and flew into another Eraser. He fell back with a hard thud on his butt. The Eraser that was chasing me before face planted into the floor. I swooped up, my wings hitting two more Erasers.

"Nudge!" Angel screamed. I watched as Angel did a circle in the air and dive bombed towards the Eraser, her little fists smacking his straight in the throat. I couldn't believe my eyes. I gave Angel a quick mental high five and she nodded. Nudge got up off of the ground, not showing any pain, and round house kicked the Eraser in his neck. He staggered backwards, his firsts shooting out and getting Nudge in the shoulder. She sucked in a breath and went back to fighting.

I dived towards the ground and landed in a running landing, my shoes pounding against the sand and sending some flying up. Hunching over and bending my arm so that elbow was facing outward I raced towards an Eraser and got him in the back. He roared and jumped.

I pushed against him and his wings, digging my elbow into his back hard. He staggered around and I stepped back, scissor kicking him in the head, and then punching him the exact center of his spine. He let out a roar so loud, I clamped my hands over my ears so my ear drums wouldn't explode. The Eraser went down like a tree being cut down in the forest. I crouched on the ground and ripped the machine gun arm right off of the Eraser. I won't go into much detail for the sake of your stomachs and mine. Let's just say there was blood involved.

"Max! Watch out!" Max2 called. I spun around on my heels, still crouching on the ground. An Eraser, much bigger than the other ones, stood holding out his arm(which was morphed into a machine gun) and pointed it right at my head. Slowly, I stood up, my wing muscles tensed so that if I needed to, I could shoot up in the air in the blink of an eye. It felt like the world had slowed down.

"Maaxx!" Nudge's voice came from a million miles away. I looked out of the corner of my eye to see she had been captured by an Eraser. He held her in a choke hold. The rest of my flock and Haley's flock were caught too. It was only me.

Where was Fang?

The Eraser grinned from ear to ear, his sharp yellow teeth coated with spit.

Death was, once again, staring me straight in the eyes. The Eraser laughed. My hands curled into fists by the sides.

"Max!" Angel screeched. There was a whooshing sound and a sharp pain in my shoulder. My head whipped to the side to see a large syringe with green goop in my shoulder. The goop was draining into me. I opened my mouth but no words came out.

"No! Max!" Nudge cried. Everything began to spin and I felt like I was going to puke. I stood up straight trying not to fall but my legs were collapsing under me.

"Maaaxxx!" Iggy and Gazzy wailed. Their voices sounded a million miles away. My throat felt dry and my whole body was beginning to feel numb.

"Nooo!" Max2 and Haley shouted.

"Hahaha," the Eraser snickered and stepped up, standing right in front of me. He held the gun a foot away from my head. I couldn't do anything. I was totally frozen. With all of my strength I got to my feet, staggering around like a drunk person. They Eraser laughed and his fist crashed into the side of my head. I sucked in a breath, feeling like his knuckles left an indent in the side of my head.

"Goodbye Max." the Eraser laughed and pointed the gun at me. My eyes closed.

Then _WHOOOSHHH BAAMMMMMMMMM!!!!!_

And I dropped to the ground, feeling a sharp pain ripple through me.


	42. Chapter 42

**OMG! Woow! 96 reviews! **

**Come people! This close! THIS close! Let's get 100!!!!**

* * *

_Am I dead? Oh God. I'm seriously totally dead. Where am I? On a cloud? In a coffin?_ I thought. Great.

"Max? Can you hear me Max?" a man's voice came from the distance. In a matter of seconds, I was looking up at a man. A doctor? A scientist? He was flashing a pen light in my eye. He had light blue gray eyes and dark hair, he looked like he needed to shave. He let go of my lid and opened the other eye, doing the same thing. He let go and I closed my eyes, feeling extremely weak. So weak that I felt like I couldn't open my eyes if I even really wanted to. This felt like a dream.

I wasn't dead. So where was I?

"Her senses are good." I could hear tell someone. There was a low_ beep beep beep_ sound in the distance. I heard a woman say something but couldn't make out the words.

"Max?" the doctor said my name again and snapped near my ears. "Come on Max. If you can hear me then I want you to open your eyes." he instructed. He snapped both fingers near both of my ears. I let out a deep sigh and opened my eyes slowly. Squinting I looked up to see that I was under a bright fluorescent lamp, surrounded by a bunch of people in scrubs( or green jammies. whatever you want to call them).

"She looks stable," a person said, scribbling something onto a clipboard, "Should we?" she looked over at the man. He nodded and handed her a syringe. I let out a gasp, clenching the sheets next to me.

"What the hell--" I stammered, my fists flying up.

Where was I? Was I in a lab? Did Chu get me? Was he trying to do what he did before?! Was he trying to get rid of me for good? Two men came around the corner and grabbed my arms, and I fought as best as I could.

"Max!" someone said, trying to calm me down. I tired to sit up but my breath caught in my throat. There was a sharp pain going up and down my back. I squeezed my eyes shut and bit down on my swollen lip. A horrible pain that went up and down my spine. Something that I had never experienced before(that I remember experiencing). I began coughing furiously, trying to catch my breath.

"What's happening?" I choked out, opening my eyes a slit. I felt a needle in arm and then one in my back. It began burning and throbbing furiously. My vision was blurred with hot tears.I opened my mouth to let out a scream but nothing came out. My heartbeat automatically sped up and I could feel my whole body throb in pain. I could feel the blood rushing from the head to my toes and back, behind my ears, in my arms, in my stomach. Everywhere.

"Dr. House!" a woman shouted. The man from before, AKA Dr. House rushed over and was saying something. I couldn't tell what from the sound of blood thumping in my ears. He was looking from me to someone holding bottles or something like that, rushing form a cart to him. He looked down at me and was mouthing something.

"Hold On Max. Calm down! Whatever you do don't move!"

Yeah. Like I wanted to move.

"What's going on?" I tired asking. He looked down but then went back to giving orders. I sucked in a breath and squeezed my eyes shut. Then bam. It hit me like a train. Like a subway deep under the streets of New York City. Movies played behind my eye lids. Memories. So many memories I had no idea what was going on. Me laughing. Crying. The flock. Jeb. Ella. Mom. Ari. Everyone. Max2. The School. White coats. Rooms and mazes. Needles. Lights. Woods. Diners. An airport. Germany. A castle.

And then white. Everything stopped and I felt calm. No pain.

I opened my eyes to see Jeb, Mom, and the flock looking down at me. They all looked really scared. "Yo." I choked out. Mom looked like she was crying and Jeb had glassy eyes. Nudge, Angel, and the Gasman had tear stains on their faces and Iggy had turned pink. Ella shouted and jumped on me. Crying.

"Oh my God Max! I thought you died!" she sobbed. I laid there stiffly. My whole back throbbed.

"Yeah M-M-Max." Nudge stammered. Angel crouched down and picked something up. She placed Total on my legs and he broke down in sobs.

"Maaaaxx. I'm so glad to see you're okkkayyyay. Ohhh-Max you're okay-ohhh." he cired, hugging my knee. I lifted my hand and scratched behind his ear.

Wow. I felt like I was thrown in a dryer and it had been put on tumble. Mom held my hand and smiled down at me. I gave her a weak smile.

"Knock, knock."

Everyone looked over to see Dr. House walk into the room, limping with a white cane. He wasn't in a white lab coat or green jammies like all the others. He looked pretty casual, wearing jeans and dress shirt with a black coat over it.

"Hello Dr. House." Mom said greeting him with a faint smile. He nodded and turned his attention to me.

"Hello Max. Are you feeling okay?" he said strangley loud.

"I'm not deaf." I rolled my eyes.

"Okay. Good. Just wanted to make sure." he sounded rather chipper.

"So what happened to me?" I spoke up while he rummaged with my monitors.

Dr. House looked over at me then back to the monitors, "Well you got lucky, that's what happened. That werewolf meets Terminator thing was aiming for your head but he somehow got you in your back. Talk about not a good aim." he murmured. My eyes widened.

That's what caused so much pain. I mean eveyone knows that you're back, your spine is seriously the next most important thing next to your heart and brain. If you damaged that you either die or something else.

"Lucky me." I said.

"Yes. Luck you." Jeb looked down at me with a smile. I didn't smile back and looked over at my flock. Then all of a sudden my heart gave a huge kick,

"Fang? What happened? Where is he? And What About Mackenzie? Max2? Emma? Haley? Where did they go?"

Angel rested her little bandage wrapped hand on my shoulder and gave a small smile. "Don't worry Max. They're in the waiting room. Fang is in his own room too." she reasured me. I let out a deep breath of relief.

"Yeah. Army helicopters came just in time. You got shot and we thought you died. And then like here comes a whole bunch of guys to our rescue." Iggy explained. He had a bandage wrapped around his head and I could see some blood. The Gasman had the same thing and Nudge had a pink cast on her arm.

"And like they killed the Erasers. I mean like with bombs and missles and stuff. It was pretty cool." the Gasman added.

I nod. "Good," I turn my attention to Dr. House, "So. Doc. When do you think I'll be better?"

"Oh. It'll take time. Even with your healing abilities. So don't think about flying." he answered. WTF? Did he? I looked from my mom to House and roll my eyes. She smiles and rolls her eyes too.

Come on, No flying? Are you freaking serious? This sucks. I felt warmth against my sore wings from the electric blankets under me.

"Okay," whatever.

* * *

**Yeah. Another guest star! HOUSE! WHOOO! I know House is usually finding unknown illnesses and cures them in the last ten minutes of the show but this time he is helping Maximum Ride! Yeah. I know. **


	43. Chapter 43

**Chapter 43! Woo hoo! **

**MAXIMUM RIDE MOVIE UPDATE : The_ movie _has gone into PRE PRODUCTION! that's a huge step up. Currently there are casting calls and websites to go to post audition pic and were there are locations to go.. If you want to know which just GOOGLE it and the first link should tell you. I would put the link but FAN FICTION wouldn't let me. So there you go. I'll give movie updates in my other Fan Ficts when I know more. **

**NEW TWILIGHT BOOK UPDATE: In Twilight, Stephanie isn't making like another book-book but like a new series. It's like Twilight in Edward Cullen's point of view. On her website she gives a 200+ page preview of the first book. **

* * *

"What's his room number?"

"Let me see."

_Click. Click. Click._

"Two forty one."

"Oh okay. Where's that exactly?"

"It's just down the hall. Second door on the left."

"Umm Thanks."

"Uhh huhh."

My heart thumped in my chest wildly and I took deep breathes to calm myself down. My bare feet made smacking noises against the cool linoleum floors, my hands shaking, and my eyes darting around. I looked at stray machines lined down the hallway, the abandoned mop and soap in the corner.

My throat was incredibly dry when I reached the second door and pushed it slowly. The door creaked open and I stepped in.

"Fang?"

I walked forward and pushed back the foam green curtain. The bed was empty. My eyes widened. Was this the right room? Did they move him? I just stood there, looking at the empty bed, dazed. My hands curled into fists and I felt a little sting in my back.

"Max?"

My heart stopped.

I looked down at my feet and slowly turned around. There standing in front of me was Fang. He was had changed into, you guessed it, all black. He looked normal. He looked like Fang--the Fang I super clearly remembered after my whole memory-came-back episode.

"F-fang!" I shouted, almost running over, wrapping my arms around him as best I could with my bad shoulder. This time he wasn't as stiff as a board, and wrapped his arms around me(sending an electrical shock through my whole body) and melted into a hug. Tears streamed down my face. "I thought I lost you." I murmured into his shirt. He stroked my hair with a bandaged hand.

"I'm not going anywhere." Fang whispered, playing around with strands of my hair. I looked up and held his face, and pressed my lips against his and wrapping my arms around his neck. His hands slid up my back and pulled me closer. I pulled back, taking him in. He smiled a half smile and kissed my cheek lightly. "Are you okay?" he touched my shoulder lightly; "I thought you got shot. I thought I was too late when I pulled the gun away from the Eraser," his eyes dropped to the floor, "Guess not."

Wait What?

"You? You got up?" I stammered, trying to make sense of this. He kissed me, sending a shockwave through my body.

He looked at me and then shrugged, "I don't know. All I remember is hearing a whole bunch of noise, the flock screaming, and seeing an Eraser standing with a gun pointed at you and you totally out of it," he took a deep, "And you know. Instincts. But I couldn't stop that bullet from getting you."

"Fang. You saved my life. I think I can handle a bullet to the shoulder better than a bullet to my head," I gave a small smile. He bent down and kissed me again.

* * *

"I can't believe this!" I cried when we were leaving the top secret hospital and going to our new house somewhere in the Colorado Rocky's. I fidgeted with the back brace I had to wear to heal faster. Luckily they had gotten one that had huge slits for my wings to neatly slip out. I could hardly walk. "I can't fly for three months!" Yeah. You read right. I wasn't--couldn't fly for three _months. _I had to stay on the ground. How un-natural for a flying bird kid.

Total trotted at my feet, "Oh it won't be that bad. You could help me with the puppies." he said trying to calm me down. I looked down at him and couldn't help but frown when Iggy and Nudge started to laugh hysterically.

"What?" I snapped. Iggy put his hand on my head and tried to stop laughing.

"Sorry, Max. But-not flying. I feel bad for you." he tired not to laugh. Nudge didn't say anything and stopped laughing, silently saying something to Ella. I took a deep breath and shook my head, taking a large gulp of water from the water bottle the Gasman handed me.

"Thanks Gazers." I ruffled his, now super clean, hair. While we were in the hospital I had gotten the whole flock cleaned. Now we were super squeaky clean bird kids. I mean we have standards. They're low but we have them.

"Oh my Gosh Total! I can't wait for you to see the puppies! They're SO adorable!" Ella squealed, pushing away a dark bang from her face. Her eyes were sparkling and she was literally radiating happiness.

"I still think you should show us the pictures you took," Angel nodded, "I mean. I'm dying to see them."

"_You're_ dying to see them?! They're my pups! Come on! I'm the_ father_._ I _should at least get to see 'em first." Total complained, walking in circles around Ella's ankles. He looked up at her with wide innocent eyes, "Please Ella?"

She looked down at his sparkling eyes and for a second almost looked like she was about to cave. Instantly she snapped out of her trance and then shook her head, "Nice try." she rolled her eyes. Total made a kind of high pitched growling sound and scoffed off to Angel.

"It's okay, Total. I think everyone wants to see your puppies." I said, nudging him with my foot. Suddenly there was a jolt of pain my left side.

"Crap." I rubbed my shoulder.

"You okay?" Fang laced his fingers through mine. I nodded.

"Yeah. No biggie." I brushed off my shoulder and gave a little laugh. He did that half smile again and squeezed my hand. I turned my attention back to my mom.

"So how long of a flight?" I reluctantly asked, thinking about the small plane. My throat went dry and I tried not to think about how much I would be freaking out about the small space. Because, you know, claustrophobic. I cleared my head and began walking towards the car waiting.

"It's about a little less than an hour," Mom said climbing into the car, "I mean. Life forty five minutes. Don't worry, honey, we'll be there before you know it."

I climbed in after Ella and Fang, making sure I got the window seat. The rest of the flock climbed in the back seats in our nine passenger truck. Thank You bigger trucks, otherwise we would have to drive to the airport separately.

That would be a huge problem. I mean I had already been without my flock for a while, I didn't want to be separated again. Even if it meant having to squish myself into a stupid car, or truck, or van.

"The airport is a twenty minute drive." Jeb said coming around the car and climbing into the front passenger seat. He turned his head and looked over at me, "No flying. Gosh. It's terrible that you got shot Max." he gave a small smile. I rolled my eyes. I know it's terrible, Thank You very much.

"Well," I spoke up, "Next time I'll be bulletproof." I gave a sarcastic smile and rolled my eyes. His smile melted into a frown and he turned back and looked out the window.

Mom gave a 'now-that-wasn't-very-nice' look to me and then turned her attention back to Ella. I felt my face get hot and I shifted in my seat, resting my arm against the window. Thank God this truck/van was super roomy--we'll roomy enough so that nobody got squished and everyone got a seat to themselves.

Fang laced his fingers through mine and squeezed my hand. He gave me a comforting look and I rested my head on his shoulder, ignoring the snickers from the back seat and the Gasman perfectly mimicking my voice saying,

"Ohhh Fang. I looooveee youuuu."

Nudge, Angel, Iggy, and Total smothered their laughter. I turned around in my seat as much as the brace would allow me and looked at my squeaky clean flying family. "Ha-Ha. Very funny Gazzy," I smiled, "But let's just wait till you find someone. Then I'll be like 'Gazzy and--uhhmm--ha-Kayla! Sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" I crooned. He gave a little nervous smile.

"Heh-heh. What ever Max." he brushed off my remark and leaned against the window he was sitting next to.

"Love ya." I laughed and turned back around.

* * *

We didn't go to an airport. We pulled up to, another, landing strip in the middle of nowhere. Except this nowhere was in the California desert. The flock was the first to get out, almost trampling Ella and Dr. Martinez.

"Ahhhh! I can breath!" Iggy extended his arms and took a deep breath. I did the same.

You know. The whole claustrophobic thing.

What I did was a Bad idea. There was a searing pain in my left shoulder (which was the shoulder I got shot in) and I stiffened, trying to block the pain.

I closed my eyes and took deep breathes, and gripped my shoulder. Ella walked over and put her hand on my good shoulder.

"Max?"

"Hmm?"

She dug into her purse and pulled out an orange see through bottle with a white top. Opening the pill bottle she pulled out a small pill and extended her hand out, "Here. Mom told me to give this to you. Dr. House gave it before we left."

"Thanks Ella." I said and took the bottle, and dry swallowed the pill.

Another van pulled up and out hopped Max2, Haley, Mackenzie, and Emma. They all were bandaged up too.

"Feeling better?" I asked Mackenzie when they approached me.

She nodded, "I'm fine. What about you?"

"Yeah. I that was a lot of blood," Emma said looking worried.

"Don't worry. I'm fine." I answered. Max2 nodded.

"That's good."

There was an awkward silence before Max2 spoke up.

"So... What are we going to do now?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" I sounded confused. She looked over at the others and they nodded. She looked back at me and opened her mouth to talk.

"Well. After this is all over, I have nowhere to go..." she began,

"You have us," I said.

Yes. Believe it. I trust Max2.

Someone pop open a bottle of Coke cause Max has added another person to her trust circle.

"Yeah. I guess. But there's the thing. Thanks but I have a flock of my own now." she gestured towards Haley, Emma, and Mackenzie. Ohhh. I smiled at them and Max2 looked caught off gaurd.

"That's GREAT!" I exclaimed.

"Really?"

"Yeah. You have a flock Max. A real flock now."

She half smiled, thinking, but then it grew to a large toothy grin, "Yeah."

* * *

"So. Where are we going exactly? Another safe house? On another mission to save the world?" I asked, lounging on a red cushioned lounge chair after we took off. Mom was sitting on a chair right across from me, looking out the window.

I watched her. I wonder if she ever wonders how it feels to fly.

Soaring above the clouds feeling your strong wings push the air under you. You feel like you're in heaven, in a state of peace, nirvana, whatever you wanna call it. She

She snapped out of her trance and Jeb walked over, sitting next to her.

They both had smiles on their faces.

"You're going to your house. Remember?" Jeb asked.

Oh yeah. Whoops.

I had forgotten about the house the CSM had built for us in Colorado, somewhere near where our old house used to be (a million life times ago). For your sakes, and for the sanity of my flock I'm not telling you where it is. Or what city it's near. Sorry. But I don't think I could take a bunch of screaming kids--and adults outside our house asking the flock to "marry them" or kiss the tops of their babies heads.

"Right." I nodded.

Jeb got up and went back to Agent Booth and Brennen, who had arrived a couple of minutes before the jet took off. Angel and Nudge were sitting on the cushions around the coffee table, playing poker and Total was talking on Ella's cell phone with Akila. Iggy, Gazzy, Mackenzie and Ella were watching the new _Avatar _movie in Real D 3D. Mom was talking to Max2 about joining the CSM and what they could do for her new flock. Fang was talking to Brigid, who also came a few minutes before we left, Emma, and Haley about the School or something.

But I didn't care anymore. Fang was mine. And if Brigid tried to do anything about that, well let's just say I hope she doesn't need arms.

Just Kidding.

I'm SO not the jealous type.

Fang saw me watching and gave a small shrug of his shoulders. I shrugged back and leaned against the head rest, looking at my flock.

_Everything is at peace, Max. And so are you. _Voice chimed in my head. I sighed, closing my eyes.

_Yeah. I guess so Voice. But what next?_ I thought.

It made something that sounded like a tisk-tisk. _Sit back and enjoy this ride while you can. This wonderful, amazing, Maximum Ride. _

* * *

**98 reviews! OMG! 2 more! If you're the 100th reviewer I will love you forever and you'll get a special shout out on my page! Whoo! And 1 chapter left. dan dan daaaannnn**


	44. Epilogue

**Last chapter. Epilogue! Oh my God. It's finally done. ='(**

**Well what can I say but thanks to everyone who followed it for sooo long and commented every step of the way :) Also thanks to the people who had won my contest and who were added into the story (Haley, Emma, Mackenzie). **

**OMGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!! 100 REVIEWS!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHH!! Thanks So much to TwilightLoverrr for being my 100th reviewer! **

* * *

"OHMIGOD! These are the cutest puppies ever!" Nudge and Angel shrieked at the same time when we stepped inside our new house in the Colorado part of the Rock Mountains.

Our house was pretty cool. It was huge and looked over a canyon, with a deck that went a hundred feet over it. The house had ten bed rooms, and each got it's own bathroom(SCORE!) a huge kitchen, living room, and it had an indoor pool, hot tub, and and outdoor pool on our ginormous deck. the CSM specially designed this explosion room and lab for Iggy and the Gasman to make bombs for protection.

They were still jumping for joy.

The house was pretty high up, a couple of hundred feet off of the ground, and near it was a stream and overlooked a huge only way to get to the top was by flying( so nobody unwanted could get up) and if we allowed you to get up then there was a ladder we could throw down or a hidden elevator only the flock and my mom (and Jeb, unfortunately) knew about. This house was missileproof too, and came with a huge stack of bullet proof sheets.

Yeah. I know.

We got it big this time.

I leaned against our giant new fridge(which was stuffed with food) and watched the younger kids play the puppies. There were six of them. Each having distinct features from Total and from Akila. Total was having the time of his life; playing with his pups, wrestling with them, teaching them how to unfurl their small wings.

"Like this," he instructed, "Yeah. You got it! Oh try again."

A white pup looked over at me and smiled, trotting over. I knew it was a girl. We had checked all of them if you know what I mean.

Her gray tipped tail swung back and forth fiercely and I bent down and scratched her behind her ears and then on my belly. "Hey there cutie." She smiled even larger and her blue eyes sparkled. Her tiny brown wings, the size of my hands, flapped wildly.

"Hi!" she barked, "My name is Max!"

Wait. A sec.

My eyes widened in surprise. Everyone was quiet now and they all turned to look at me and then at 'Max'.

"Did--she just--I mean--did she just talk? And call herself M-Max?" Ella's eyes bugged.

Total looked up at Ella, "I think she just did. OH! My babies can talk!"

Max2 shook her head, snickering, "Wow."

Fang walked over, holding a panther black puppy with matching wings. I couldn't help but snort a laugh.

"We kinda bonded." Fang shrugged, figuring out that I was laughing about Mr. All Black holding a all BLACK dog. I stood up, scooping Max up in my arms.

"Fang. Meet Max." I announced.

"Hi!" Max barked loudly. Fang actually laughed (I know someone pinch me) a deep belly laugh and said,

"According to Ella this is Shadow." he put shadow on the ground and I put Max on the ground. They both rolled around on the ground, actually laughing like humans. I guess Shadow wasn't much of a talker either, unlike his sister (Max the dog) who was talking away.

I guess she got that from Total.

Angel, Emma, and Total bounced ( and I literally mean bouncing), Angel holding a pure white puppy. She held the puppy up like Rafiki held Simba in the _Lion King _on Pride Rock( yeah we saw that movie. On the plane actually).

"This," she raised her voice so everyone could hear her, "Is Raven!" Raven wagged her tail.

Jeb and John pushed open the sliding glass door that lead to our new deck. Jeb had black sut all over his face and pape on his cheeks and John had a streak of black dust on his face. From outside I could hear the Gasman, Haley, Mackenzie, and Iggy laugh hysterically. I bent over laughing hard.

Nice look Jeb. You should keep.

"Umm. The barbeque is done. If anyone is wondering." John announced.

"Sweet!"

"Lets! Go!"

Ella, Nudge, Angel, and the puppies ran out the door and onto the sun filled deck. Fang and I were on their heels. The smell of steak on the grill was mouth watering and was calling to me. My stomach churned and growled.

Max2 and I sighed at the same time when we stepped out and saw food piled across the six foot wide table.

Yes. Maximum Ride. Super fast super tough bird girl, and her ex-evil twin, sighed like little wimps at the sight of food.

We both looked up at each other, rolling our eyes, then laughing. Our shoes thumped loudly against the wood and the sun was getting lower and lower in the sky making it appear orange, blue, peach, and pink.

I took a beep breath and scanned the area(force of habit), watching my flock play and have fun. Hopefully this would be our house for a very long time. I walked over, adjusting my back brace, and peering over the edge of the deck, holding onto the wooden railing. There was a small comforting breeze.

Everything felt right.

Everything seemed okay.

For now.

* * *

**And there you go! Comment! tell your friends to CHECK IT OUT! I'm not sure if I'm gonna start a sqeual. probably not. but idk. Thanks for everyone who checked it out! **

**}SM{**


End file.
